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Date: 4/12/2023
HUNTINGTON — The Gateway Regional School District’s unique Vision Impairment Program is accepting tuition-in students in grades 6 to 12 who have support needs in the area of sensory vision on an IEP or 504 plan.
The program is in its first year of accepting students from other districts, and is on the cusp of expanding, said Amy Mason, teacher of students with visual impairments and a certified orientation and mobility specialist. Mason is in her sixth year at Gateway.
The program staff also includes Brailist Kristie Poehler, and paraprofessionals Shari Laurie, Kim King and Chrissy Bernardi, who travels from Chicopee’s public schools to support one of the tuition students. Paraprofessionals Ashleigh Hourihan, a registered and certified behavior technician, and Susan Cousineau, an LPN, both regularly work with students in the program, Mason said.
“This is the first year people have come from other districts,” Mason said. She said two current students are tuitioned in.
While the program is for grades 6-12, students in pre-K through grade 5 may be considered at the request of a sending district.
“I see kids of all ages,” she said.
Ninth grader Isabella Vera Lee of Chicopee was working on an assignment in world studies on her computer in the room that serves as the program’s hub.
“I really love it. It is a very fulfilling school in that people are very nice,” Isabella said. “Classes are exigent. You work as best as you can, give the best. The support is great. My plan is to graduate from here.”
Mason said one of the big issues in blindness impairment is that there are not enough people in the field.
“People don’t know jobs like this exist,” she said. She has been in it for 17 years, starting as a paraprofessional with the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, and most recently working for the Ludlow schools.
“I’ve never had a bad experience. I’ve gone to a lot of districts, and worked with a lot of students. I enjoyed driving around,” Mason said. Now a Huntington resident with two children in the district, she said it’s nice to have them close by.
Mason said Gateway is a beautiful rural area, and “it’s been a really nice experience to be here in particular,” adding that with the critical shortage of professionals, having the students come there makes use of the resources and maximizes her effectiveness. She said Gateway is a smaller district with a lot of space.
At present, the seven students in the program range from first grade to ninth grade, all with different needs. Some of the students have low vision, some have multiple disabilities.
“I have four students using screen readers, such as JAWS, NVDA, and Voiceover. I also have three students using screen magnification software such as Zoomtext or Windows Magnifier. All four of my students who use Braille regularly also have access to refreshable Braille displays, which are machines that work with a screen reader to display information in Braille, line by line,” Mason said.
“What makes this program unique is that we try to make learning as fun as possible,” she said.
One of the daily exercises in fun are “Braille out” jokes, which get posted on the wall of the VIP classroom hub for entering students. Isabella volunteered to demonstrate, moving from her laptop to a Perkins Brailler to type out a joke as Kim King read it to her: “What do ghosts like to eat in the summer? I scream.”
King said Isabella usually rolls her eyes as she types out the jokes.
Mason said the curriculum includes a whole array of skills, including working on orientation and mobility, travel, crossing streets and daily living skills; when to ask for help, and how to advocate for that help.
Isabella said for fun she participates in the Fit for Life program, going through a strength routine in the workout room in the school.
“It hurts by the end of it, but it’s worth it,” she said.
Entering the room is fifth grader Sophia Zenchenko, also from Chicopee. Mason said her former teacher was retiring, and notified the state list, and heard about Gateway.
Sophia had just come from playing volleyball in the gym, where she said she did serve the ball, but couldn’t hit it again.
Mason said they could get gym materials for the next class ahead of time, so Sophia could get a feel for it.
“Does that sound like a good plan?” she asked, with Sophia answering, “Yes.”
Sophia’s one-on-one paraprofessional Chrissy Bernardi, who came over with her from Chicopee, said volleyball was ending, and floor hockey would be the next activity.
Mason said they have really cool pucks for blend hockey, a bell ball that has a sound inside.
Mason said materials are available through a collaboration between the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Blind and the American Printing House. Some of the resources are purchased by pupil services, and some are paid for by student tuition. The technology, like updated screen reading, is free. “We pull from a variety,” she said.
Also joining the group was seventh grader Gabriella Mann of Russell. Her two brothers, one of whom graduated last year, have also been through the program at Gateway.
Gabriella was wearing her wrestling team sweatshirt. Talking about living in Russell, and learning to navigate her driveway in all sorts of weather, she said, “It’s not a driveway, it’s a hiking trail.”
“It’s been a great experience to have the kids together,” Bernardi said. “In a typical public school program, they don’t have an identity-based group.”
She said in Chicopee there were other students, but they never saw each other. “A lot of schools are like that,” she said. One reason is caseload; one teacher of students with vision impairments may have 45 students.
Bernardi was just accepted into UMass Boston for training as a teacher of students with vision impairment, one of three staff members in the program working on certification programs in that field.
Gateway Pupil Services Director Kurt Garivaltis said how big the Vision Impairment Program at Gateway becomes will be contingent upon needs.
“We know there is a severe lack of staff who are trained and qualified, “ he said.
Garivaltis said after the district hired Mason, who is both a certified teacher and orientation and mobility specialist, Gateway Superintendent Kristen Smidy suggested the idea of creating a program to serve students from different districts. They wrote up the program proposal, which was accepted by the state.
“We just started. Within a couple of months, we accepted two students,” he said, adding that with the staff who are currently working on certification, the program will be able to scale up in the future, if there’s a need.
Gateway is planning to build the tuition program based on each child’s needs, rather than a flat rate. He said some students might need eight hours, some 15 hours.
“We thought it would be more prudent, more of a bargain for sending districts,” he said, adding that right now the cost is between $50,000 and $80,000 per student.
With full-time onsite vision impairment staff and comprehensive, inclusive programming, Gateway is building an all-in-one educational programming solution for students who are underserved or not receiving services, according to brochures describing the program, as well as providing an alternative to residential programs.
Citing large caseloads and the critical shortage of vision impairment educators, sending students to Gateway’s program means students will be distributed more equitably among vision impairment professionals, and remaining vision impairment students in sending districts will benefit from their staff’s increased availability, improved teacher effectiveness.
College prep and honors coursework is available for eligible high school students, as well as vocational programs in early childhood and welding, and extracurriculars including wrestling, trivia club, Model UN, community soccer, robotics and more.
Gateway vision impairment students at the elementary level are able to participate in before- and after-school wraparound programs, while middle and high school students have a variety of after-school programs, athletics and extracurriculars.
“Our hope is to create a destination program for students with vision impairment. There are no others in Western Mass.,” Garivaltis said.
Special education directors can begin enrollment process for Gateway’s Vision Impairment Program by contacting Amy Mason at amason@grsd.org or Kurt Garivaltis at k.garivaltis@grsd.org.