Connecting students at Castle Valley Center with the community has been one of the main goals of the school this year, and the teachers and staff continue to do that with an emphasis on students being self-sufficient in the world.
“I am very excited about the direction we are going, not only with what we are doing this year but what we intend to do next year,” said Amy Bell, the Principal of the school. “We are working to incorporate more and more functional activities and skills into our academics.”
This year the school has worked hard to get students to understand what it means to trade one thing for another, such as money for something they want. The concession stand that the school has been using has been quite successful, and students have liked it. Bell says that it teaches “numerous skills in one shot.”
Some students that can’t grasp the meaning of money are understanding what it is like to exchange something for another item they want. Other students who have more severe disabilities are just learning to make a choice.
“For some of the students it is difficult to just attend to what is being offered them, and what we are doing teaches them to make a choice in what they want,” explained Bell. “Previously they didn’t even pay attention to what we were offering and now they are looking right at it and will pick which one they like.”
She pointed out along with this the students are gaining social skills such as learning to wait for something, to stand in line, to take turns, and they are increasing their communication with others. They just can’t point to what they want, but they are saying words to tell people what they desire. “
“Next year we are going incorporate cooking classes into the school,” she said, “There are some teachers that have done that over the years but now we are going to make that happen for the whole school.”
Another thing that has been done is to teach students about safety and courtesy while in the community. For instance there are some crosswalks painted on the school’s playground and students are taught how to use them and obey safety signals.
“We have focused on community signs such as stop signs and exit signs,” said Bell, “We are concentrating on all the safety signs. We are practicing this in a structured setting and then later we will go downtown and out into the real world to see how students function with what they have learned. These activities also tie in their vocabulary lessons and communication.”
Anyone who drives by the school can also see there are big changes taking place on the physical space of the building as well. Equipment has already removed the lawn from in front of the school and soon workers will begin the construction of an additional parking area..
“That is part of our on-going security upgrade. This new (parking) lot will bring people around to the main doors so we can then control access to the school more easily. There will be a couple of slots of short term parking so people who come to the school will come through the main doors,” concluded Bell.