We’re excited to be back for a new school year. During the summer, COMPASS funded a full rehabilitation of our lavatories. We now have brand new facilities for young women and young men as well as a unisex facility that is accessible to those with physical handicaps. This is a dream come true for all of us – including volunteers who painted the old facility more than once!!

This year we will be including Character Education in our school. Each month will focus on a positive character trait. Teachers will incorporate messages about the trait in their classes and counselors will include a focus on the trait in small group counseling. During the month, students and staff will be invited to post quotations, thoughts, examples of the trait on the Character bulletin board. At the end of the month a school assembly will feature students’ expressions of what the trait means to them. Such expressions might include a story, poem, rap, drawing, etc. A panel of judges including students and staff will award prizes to all who present an expression. The theme for September is RESPECT.

Full transition services also begin in both schools this year with stipend supported apprenticeships made possible by the Clowes Foundation. The Transition staff, Deidre O”Connor and David Zimmer have worked all summer to lay the groundwork for a successful program. Anyone who has suggestions for potential sites for apprenticeship or job shadowing placements is asked to contact us at the Holden School. We will be grateful.

We all look forward to a super year!