Overview of Job Site Programming

Leary School JobSite Program: Building a Future - 4.35MB (ppt)

The Leary School JobSite programs, initially begun during the 1986-87 school year, provide a selected group of students intensive hands on vocational training and the opportunity to attend school in a very nontraditional manner. The students who are part of this program spend the entire day and receive all their instruction at a job site, where there is a complete staff assigned to the program, including a classroom teacher, a full time teaching assistant, and vocational staff (including a jobsite coordinator). Each student spends half of his or her day in academic instruction and works on the jobsite, learning the construction trades during the remainder of the day. These students learn about carpentry, engineering, plumbing, landscaping, electrical wiring and all aspects of new home construction, not in theory or from a demonstration laboratory, but by actually building/renovating real houses. Individual and group counseling, physical education and case management are delivered onsite, as well as speech and occupational therapy.

Since the inception of this program, the students at the Fairfax JobSite have completed three total house renovations and seven new house projects. As can be seen on the page for the Fairfax JobSite program, the staff and students have completed homes in both the Bailey’s Crossroads area of Fairfax County (listed as Arnet Street) and three homes in Arlington County (listed as Culpeper Street). During the 1996-97 school year, several lots were purchased less than a mile from the Leary School of Virginia’s main campus. To date, the JobSite staff and students have completed four new homes and one home renovation project on Holyoke Drive.

During the spring of 2006, this program was expanded to include a new program near Leesburg, Virginia: the Leary School Job Site, Loudoun County (LSJS,LC).

This program is located on 50 acres of the Loudoun Field Center at Glaydin (LFCG).

In 2010, Leary School, Prince George’s County merged and consolidated with its annex jobsite program located in Brandywine, Maryland: Leary School JobSite, Brandywine.

Similar to the Leary School Job Site, Fairfax County, students attending the Loudoun County program and the Brandywine program receive academic instruction for approximately half of the school day and then instruction and hands on experience in the construction trades during the remainder of the day. On the individual pages for Leary School JobSite, Loudoun County and Leary School JobSite, Brandywine can be seen projects that the staff and students in these programs have completed.

Participating students leave school with job skills, knowledge that they can be successful at work, and actual experiences in doing such. These students have successful learning and work experiences upon which a happy, productive adulthood and working life should follow.