School seeking support for expansion
Operators want to
expand enrollment
of autistic students
from 63 to 85
Administrators at the Search Day School for autistic children are embarking on a determined campaign to get information about its program out to the community in hopes of winning support for plans to expand.
Katherine Solana, executive director of the school, which is located on Wickapecko Road, in Ocean Township, said she believes the school’s earlier attempt to expand failed because the school didn’t get enough information to neighbors.
That effort ended May 10, 1999, with the denial of the school’s appeal to the state Superior Court of the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment’s rejection of its application to construct a second building.
"I think if the neighbors get to know us, they won’t have a problem," Solana said in an interview.
"I believe there was a lot of misinformation the last time the school tried to put up this building," she continued. "Last time, I think people thought these were horrible children, when they are really lovely children who can grow up to lead productive lives."
The school has scaled down its proposal and has applied again to the zoning board for approval of a second building on its 4.8-acre property. A hearing on its application is scheduled to begin today at the board’s 7:15 p.m. meeting.
The school is seeking permission to build a $1.7 million, 15,507-square-foot, one-story building next to the present two-story school building, a 101-year-old mansion. Its earlier application was for a 23,000-square-foot building.
Solana said the new building would be tied in aesthetically with the existing building. She said the plans also call for improved landscaping, installation of a sprinkler system, and construction of a parking lot at the rear of the school which will eliminate staff parking on the front lawn.
"We’re going to make it prettier for the whole community," she said.
The school needs a use variance and a bulk variance for minimum lot size. It also only has 83 parking spaces when 204 are required.
To seek community support, the school is opening its doors June 4 to anyone who is interested in attending an information session on its plans.
In addition, a letter-writing campaign asking for approval of the expansion has begun. Solana said letters already have been sent to the township by Tom Pagano, the superintendent of schools, and Paul Petito, executive director of the New Jersey Center for Outreach and Services of the Autism Community.
"I think the last time when we were trying to get this expansion through, there just wasn’t enough understanding of the need for the facility to expand," she said.
Solana said the school plans to take in no more than 22 additional students above the 63 it has now with the new building, for a total enrollment of 85.
She said the school has a waiting list of over 100 children.
Many of those on the waiting list, as well as many of the present students, are from the township, she noted.
The Search Day Program was founded 30 years as the first school for autistic children in the state. Solana has been with the school for 25 of those years, beginning as a teacher’s aide during the four years she was in college. She went on to teach at the school for 14 years before moving into administration and became the executive director four years ago.
Prior to establishment of the school, children with autism were sent to institutions, she said.
Terri Shaw, project director for the school expansion, who has been with Search for 15 years, pointed out the school is getting autistic children at the age of 3 now, whereas they were much older when they arrived in the past.
"We have early intervention" now, she said. "The early childhood classes get 1-to-1 instruction. The older classes get 2-to-1 instruction. We also have ancillary people working with them — speech and language therapists, an occupation therapist to help our children be students, and two behaviorists.
"The idea is to have them be as productive and independent as possible to be able to live in the world, in our community," she added. "We have one student who has actually gone on and gotten a college education."
Solana said she has attended the graduation of a Search Day Program student from Brookdale Community College.
"He drives a truck now and comes back and talks to our students," she said.
Solana said the school serves children from age 3 to 21 and operates on a regular school-year schedule. It also has an eight-week summer program.
She said the school offers an academic program as well as physical and behavioral instruction. All the teachers are certified, and the school is approved by the state Department of Education, which monitors it, she added.
"There’s not one child who has come through this school who has not progressed," she said. "Many of them can be mainstreamed. We take them at the age of 3, and by 6 or 7 they’re going back to their home district.
"I think the 1-to-1 ratio with the babies made the difference," she continued. "Twenty-five years ago the majority of the children coming to us were 10 or 11 years of age and had had no behavioral support or intervention and had more severe classified behaviors. Nowadays, it’s a whole different story in respect that the doctors are recognizing autism at a much younger age, so the children are receiving early intervention services."
Shaw said it used to be that cases of autism were 1 in 10,000, while now it’s 1 in 50. Asked if that was because of better diagnosis or an increase in incidence, she said that was a good question.
"There are better diagnoses, but there also seems to be an increased incidence," she said. "We’re suspecting that it could be something genetic. There also are other theories that it’s an autoimmune deficiency with some kind of environmental trigger."
Shaw said she has a sister, now in her 40s, with autism. Her mother, Marge Odom, also worked at the Search Day School and just recently retired as office manager after 30 years.
Solana said Odom had been one of the founders of the school, noting that the school held a fund-raising dinner-dance at which it charged $100 per person to celebrate her retirement. She said that money is helping to pay for the architect, engineer and attorney working on the school’s expansion plans.
Solana noted that when the Search Day Program first bought the school building, the people of Ocean Township embraced it. She hoped they would again.
"If the people of Ocean Township hadn’t had the vision or the heart to open to us, I can’t imagine what these children would be like," she said. "This was groundbreaking, and Ocean Township can be credited with opening up life to these children and their families. I believe most of the people living here today are just as caring and loving of children in need of help.
"I think those opposed are only opposed because they don’t have the information they need."