When educators and best friends Rebekah Lilly and Savanna Keesee started to notice an increase in students with behavioral difficulties, they knew they were in a unique position to provide more than repeated write-ups and disciplinary actions. They knew they could create a welcoming environment where education and therapy could join together to help students meet the challenges of school and of everyday life. It was through this idea, that GreenRiver Academy was created.
According to Lilly, the vision to start the therapeutic based GreenRiver Academy in White Sulphur Springs began about five years ago when she and Keesee were working at Lewisburg Elementary School. The two had quickly developed a friendship by working together in the public school system and through Girl Scout Troop leadership.
In their individual professions, Keesee, a kindergarten teacher with eight years of experience, and Lilly, a speech therapist with 14 years of experience, were both educated on the best practices for student success, but it wasn’t until they had the idea to marry their professions together that they noticed a real improvement in student behavior.
At the time, Lilly was providing speech therapy services for students in Keesee’s classroom.
“We noticed that if we took therapy practices and educational practices and merged them together, we would see a bigger and faster change in children who were having difficulties,” Lilly said.
Together, they began to develop lessons and social stories as a way to teach certain concepts to those students with difficulties, Keesee explained. Once they both started using the same language with students, it was as if the classroom took on a different atmosphere.
It takes a lot of planning and resources to make this happen, Keesee said. To meet the requirements of the Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA) public schools use the educational therapeutic model to provide services to students.
Since these two friends were able to work in collaboration together both inside and outside the public school setting, they were able to develop lessons and gain resources that many public school professionals do not have the time to do.
It was this realization that led them to consider opening a school where all personnel would have the time and ability to collaborate together to enhance the understanding of students with neurological impairments.
So, while this teaching method might not be new, the way it will be presented at GreenRiver Academy will be, Keesee said.
“We are creating an extreme specialized educational therapeutic model,” Keesee said.
It helps to understand the extreme therapeutic model if one imagines a child being at the center of a web, Lilly explained. She said that every person a child interacts with from teachers to Walmart employees are all a part of the web. Since neurological and developmental delays can impact all aspects of a child’s life, it is important to teach skills that will help them be successful at each web connection. This is where the individualized therapy provided at GreenRiver Academy can help students the most.
When teachers, therapists, parents and the student speak the same language and work toward the same goal, the child will begin to flourish, Lilly said. Individualized support services including speech, hearing and vision, behavioral, occupational and physical therapy will be available depending on the child’s needs. Those professionals from each discipline will be able to join together to create a plan that will help the student excel.
Not only will those at GreenRiver Academy focus on classroom-style learning, but they will incorporate all five senses into education and allow for movement by allowing students to climb a rock wall and engage in a sensory room.
Included in the sensory room are a trampoline and a therapy swing that will allow students to burn energy or relax as needed. The room also has an EyeClick system that enhances gross motor skills through image projection. For example, the image of a ball will be projected on the floor and students can kick the image to make it move, Keesee said.
Even though GreenRiver Academy is a private school, the curriculum will be the same as Greenbrier County Schools, but the way in which it is applied will be different and individualized for each student. Some students who enter the public education system have trouble getting up to speed and it can take a teacher as long as two months to get them where they need to be, Keesee explained.
“We want to make it easier to transition children into the public school system,” Keesee said. “We want to complement the school system, not take away from it.”
Greenbrier County Schools and GreenRiver Academy will work hand-in-hand to provide services to students as needed, Keesee said.
Due to COVID-19, Keesee and Lilly have decided to postpone a full school opening until August. At first, they will serve Pre-K students, but the ultimate plan is to grow the facility to serve older children.
In the meantime, because so many students have started falling behind in classwork, Keesee and Lilly have decided to open the academy part-time to serve students in all grades through a tutoring program.
Two-hour tutoring sessions can happen individually or in small groups, Keesee said. The cost for tutoring is $30 per two hours. Speech therapy services are available if needed.
For those concerned about safety, Keesee and Lilly have designed tutoring areas with social distancing in mind.
The academy may look small from the outside, but it is complete with three full classrooms, the sensory room, a computer room, bathrooms, a kitchen, the rock wall and theatre, Keesee said. Because of its size, students who are there for tutoring will be able to learn in separate rooms that can be cleaned before a new group enters.
As another way to serve students before their full-time opening, this summer Keesee and Lilly plan to host a camp for children who are on the autism spectrum.
The goal of the summer camp is to create educational and support groups for both children and parents, according to Lilly.
“It’s whole family involvement, not just a place to drop your kid off for four hours,” Lilly said.
“Sometimes as a parent of a child with special needs you can feel alone, but the camp would be designed to let everyone know that you are not,” she added.
For those interested in the tutoring program, or for those who wish to get more information about summer camp or Pre-K, visit GreenRiver Academy’s Facebook page, email brightstarts2020@gmail.com, or call 304-956-2090.
Keesee and Lilly said that they understand many parents of students with special needs might worry about the cost of a private school versus a public school education, but they said options are always available for those who wish to enroll their children.
“We have plans to grow as far as being able to provide billing for Medicaid and private insurances for our specialized services if that is what is required,” Lilly said.
“We have worked very hard to make things as cheap as we possibly can because we don’t ever want to turn someone away because they can’t afford it,” Keesee said. “We have gone through a lot of avenues to work on that.”
“We didn’t enter our profession to get rich,” Keesee said. “We entered our profession to make a difference.”
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