AUBURN — With just five middle school students in her class, special education teacher Margaret Templeton is able to provide as much or as little one-on-one support as they need.

Writing, in particular, can be difficult for her students, who often struggle to focus on tasks. Sometimes, she brings the entire group together for brainstorming sessions guided by organizational charts, working through the events of a story step-by-step until they’re the ones asking to write.

“I wait for that sweet spot,” she said. “It’s when they’re saying ‘we want to write our own story.”

It’s a technique she’s especially proud of, and one which  is only possible in small classroom settings like those at St. Mary’s Renaissance School in Auburn.

Recognizing an unmet need for clinician-centered education in the Lewiston-Auburn area, two psychiatrists at St. Mary’s paved the way for the opening of the Renaissance School in 1996. Both were trained to help adolescents.

Now, more than 25 years later, a couple hundred students have benefited from the program’s individualized approach.

Referrals to the Renaissance School are made when school staff determine that a student cannot be safely managed in a traditional educational setting due to behavioral and emotional challenges. A comprehensive medical staff – including a psychiatrist, an occupational therapist, a psychiatric nurse and a clinician – and a 2-1 staff ratio allows the school to provide highly specialized, individual care for their students.

“We’re giving kids an education, and we’re weaving it into the medical component that these kids need, rather than letting them get lost in the special education system where the schools aren’t equipped or staffed to handle them,” explained Louis Velazquez, one of the school’s founding psychiatrists, as quoted in a 1997 Sun Journal article.

At its start, the school claimed it was the only one of its kind in Maine.

The school’s mission has remained remarkably the same since its founding. School staff say the school’s primary goal is to teach its students the skills they need to successfully reintegrate into a traditional classroom setting.

“Our real focus is to try and make this be the last outplacement that a child needs,” school director Stuart Beddie said.

By his account, the school has a great track record of helping its eighth grade students transition into their local high schools.

But staff say the success of their program’s approach can also be seen in their physical intervention data.

“Staff do an excellent job of deescalating and underreacting,” said lead behavioral health professional Corey Gagnier. “As a result, our physical intervention numbers are remarkably low. We avoid putting hands on (students) unless absolutely necessary.”

The small group, relationship-focused programs are key to their success, he said.

“You can’t expect kids to work for you if there’s no relationship,” Gagnier said. “They will rebel. So before you start with the rules, you’ve got to work on the relationships.”

Each day at the Renaissance School begins with group therapy. From there, Templeton said staff aim to create new and exciting educational activities in a predictable daily schedule structured around the clinical-care students need.

“We’re really supplementing emotionally, as well as academically, to give them what they need to be well in the world,” she said.

There are 20 students enrolled in the school, although it could have as many as 30 with more staff. Across the region, special education programs are struggling to hire, a long-term challenge which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Local superintendents say that specialized programs like the Renaissance School are crucial for students with high needs, but finding placements for these students has become increasingly difficult.

Beddie said the school receives far more referrals than it can accept from school districts in Androscoggin, Cumberland and Oxford counties. In the past, students from as far away as Bethel have attended the school.

Since its start on St. Mary’s main campus in Lewiston, the program was moved to Lake Street School in Auburn before landing in its home on Western Avenue.

St. Mary’s Renaissance School would have celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, but was unable to due to the pandemic. Beddie said the school hopes to hold an open house for families and past students in recognition of the milestone next spring.

Copy the Story Link

« Previous

RSU 56 in Dixfield Special Services director Heidi Connelly says 132 students in the special education program

Next »

Portland schools superintendent resigns amid payroll turmoil