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Perspective Newsletters
Spring 2006
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Page 1
Dear Friends of the Foundation:
Once again, the Foundation is happy to announce the development of some new programming.
We hope to open the Leary School Job Site, Loudoun County, this May.
This program will in many ways replicate the programming that has been offered so
successfully at the Leary School Job Site program associated to the main campus in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Started in 1987, the Foundation’s Job Site program has provided secondary students
the opportunity to receive specialized educational services and hands on vocational
training. Between 15 and 20 students have generally participated in this unique program
each year. The students are bused to an actual job site at which they spend the entire
day. For most, the day is split between academic instruction and related services
which are delivered on site and vocational training, which involves the actual building
of new houses and/or major residential renovations. Our students and staff have built
six new homes and completed three total renovations since this program’s inception.
Please visit out website to see pictures of these wonderful projects.
Many students exit this program with both a high school diploma and the skills and
career maturity to enter the workforce.
The vast majority of students who have participated in this program have been genuinely
invested in learning, which represents a marked improvement in motivation compared
to what was present in the past for them. For some, it was night and day.
Staff interviewing secondary students seeking admissions to one of the Leary School
programs frequently hit a rough spot in the process. Many 15, 16 and 17- year olds
were unmotivated to try yet another school, another program, another second, third,
fourth, umpteenth chance, yet again. No matter how you dressed it up, encouraged
them to give it yet another try, told them it might be different this time, there
was almost a shared sense of tenuousness evident at the first meeting and from both
parties. Could it really be different? They still had to go into a classroom, sit
at a desk, maybe count the minutes until the end of each period, waiting painfully
each day for lunch, dismissal and Fridays. They still had to face a secondary curriculum
and “make it or break it testing” that brought into question the disconnect between
goals - those of the students during their adolescence and those of others who want
to help prepare them for adult roles.
“Why should I care about Algebra, I will never use it in my lifetime?” “Early World
History, Chemistry, Poetry, Statistics? You must be kidding, I am going into the
Marines, I am going to work in a restaurant with my brother, or worse “I already
know I can never pass the tests anyway, so why are we wasting my time?” Even defending
the value of the curriculum, it is hard to honestly convince a student that things
could be different. They very well might not be.
The student also has to change but sometimes maybe a school can, at least some.
For this small handful of students, the school changed enough to accommodate their
- at the time - issues of motivation and career direction. As a result, our job site
programming has been one of the most successful special education programs for a
unique group of students. The Foundation staff occasionally refers to this as a niche
program. It fits incredibly well for a small, unique group of students.
As a result, the Foundation is preparing to enter into an arrangement with the Loudoun
Field Center at Glaydin, a not for profit corporation located near Lucketts, Virginia
(which is near Leesburg, Virginia, and very close to Frederick and Washington Counties
in Maryland and Jefferson County, West Virginia). The Loudoun Field Center at Glaydin
is the parent organization which owns the facilities and grounds of the former Glaydin
School and Camp, which had an extensive history in the treatment and education of
many special populations of students over many years.
Currently, the facility and grounds are being used and will be further developed
to accommodate a variety of community services including eventually offering camping,
retreats, social and therapeutic services, religious services, short term housing
needs and the like.
The Foundation will occupy two former classrooms and an office in which its educational
programming and administration will be housed. In addition, the Foundation, through
its staff and students, will be involved in the renovation of some of the former
camping lodges and residence units.
In what is expected to be an ideal partnership, the Foundation will be able to expand
its job site program so that students in Loudoun County and possibly surrounding
jurisdictions can enjoy what has been so successful for 19 years at the Foundation’s
main campus in Alexandria.
Alan Peck, the current job site coordinator, will assume the leadership role at this
new program. Mr. Peck, who has been with Leary School of Virginia for nearly 16 years,
certainly has the skills and experiences to make this program yet another model in
the field.
The setting is beautiful with great opportunities. Fifty acres of hardwood and softwood
trees, a pond, cabins, some of which were built in the mid 1700s, and great history
bring with it a wonderful sense of history and opportunity for this special programming.
The Foundation, through its job site program, expects to be a part of continuing
in that tradition.
Ed Schultze, Ed.D.
President/Executive Director
Lincolnia Educational Foundation, Inc.
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