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St. Anthony School supports special needs students
By Lauren Evans, Staff writer
The school is not reminiscent of a typical school with crowded classes and florescent lights. It is a school where hugs are more prevalent than scolding, where students are treated as individuals rather a collective student body.
"My husband and I would be willing to say there's not another school to give this kind of love," Gena Norris said.
Through benefactors, such as Chuck and Gena Norris, The St. Anthony School has been able to reach students with various learning differences in a smaller setting.
Founded by executive directors Green and Tony Cinquepalmi, St. Anthony started out with seven students and has expanded to have anywhere from 80 to 100 students with 13 teachers and three therapists.
After years of working with children who had ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder, various forms of autism and other learning disabilities in the public and private sector, both came up with the concept of having therapists and teachers work along side each other.
"If you're going to teach social skills you need to catch them doing it," Green said.
Green started his teaching career with the Mental Health and Mental Retardation system of Texas. He has worked at various public and private schools including The Denton State School and Richardson Independent School District. His work in hospitals includes serving as the Education Director at New day of Dallas in the early 1990s. He met Cinquepalmi during his time in the Baylor Hospital System.
A first generation American with Italian heritage, Cinquepalmi also worked with children, adolescents, and families with MHMR of Texas later joining Plano Independent School District as a therapist to at-risk youth. After leaving the Baylor Hospital system, both Green and Cinquepalmi served as consultants for various public and private school and helped design programs for students with learning differences.
“Those are two of the kindest, most gentlest people,” Gena said. “They structure it in a way where these kids feel safe.”
Classrooms are set up to enhance the ability of students, particularly students with sensory-integration dysfunction easily distracted by florescent lighting and busy rooms, by lighting the room with a combination of floor laps and natural lighting. The desks are placed against the wall for independent study to allow for less distractions as well as more open visual space in the middle of the room. Most of the learning is done in small groups with the teacher to encourage teamwork.
Benefactors enabled the school to set up scholarships for tuition and recently 123 laptops were given to the school by an anonymous donor. Chuck and Gena Norris became benefactors and friends of the school when Gena’s son Tim attended for two years. When the family moved to California last year Green and Cinquepalmi surprised Tim by attending his high school graduation that spring.
Despite living in California, Gena and Chuck continue to visit the school for various special events. Most recently they were at the school before winter break spending time with students and faculty.
"They are a great support to us," Green said.
Students conduct their time at school as students at any other school would. Both upper and lower school attend the Crosby Recreational Center twice a week and trips to the Carrollton Public Library are taken once a week.
Upper school students conduct a student council that sells snacks to other students during lunch to raise money for the two dances of the year and helps the school with various service projects through out the year. At the end of the year upper school students have opportunity to travel with a faculty member and parent sponsors to Europe.
“TSAS is unlike any other school that I've been associated with in terms of the rapport and relationships that are developed with the students and their families,” Kevin Walker, an upper school teacher, said.
Walker has been with the school for six years and believes the smaller class sizes are a benefit to students. He heard about the school through friend who had previously done an internship.
Nathan Lambert, in his fifth year of teaching mainly upper school students, had a similar experience and learned about the school through a friend, who was a former teacher. He teaches a variety of subjects such as Algebra, freshman English, Physics, U.S. History, and speech due to the small class sizes.
“I believe the biggest benefit the students receive from the school is our relentless love for each of them,” Lambert said. “We are just the right size to give each student one on one help and are able to work to help them with their differences every day.”
Building facilities have been leased from The Cathedral of Light since 1998. Lower school classes are held in portables while The Cathedral of Light houses the upper school classes and an evaluation center. Offices are located in a house adjacent to The Cathedral of Light parking lot. Northside Baptist Church's gym directly next door is also used for gym activities for both upper and lower school.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
Cthulu wrote on Aug 9, 2010 11:20 AM:
" This school is horrible! My son ... went to their Upper school (High school) last year and every day he came home crying over things the boys there had done to him! There's so much bullying in the Upper school we had to drag him to the car every morning! Literally! "
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