Rise and Shine

Hi my many blog readers! :) My school that I work at is having our annual fundraiser, the Rise and Shine Walk for Kids which helps make up the shortfalls in funding from the MANY budget cuts happening from the state in the last couple of years. As many of my teaching friends know...teachers don't get paid much to begin with and we are now facing salary cuts. I admire the teachers and the therapists here so much...they bust their butts to make sure our kids don't go without their needed services! I just wanted to share a little testimony one of our parents put together and a picture of her daughters that attend our school. Anyone who is blessed enough and can help, you can donate by going to our website www.achievementacademy.com. I know times are tough so don't feel bad if you can't.

My name is Mary Holjes and I have four daughters. Two of these children are a set of twins, Sarah and Rachel, who currently attend the Achievement Academy and I would like to take a moment to tell you how we got here.When I was 23 weeks pregnant with Sarah and Rachel, my husband and I were told that the girls had a genetic disorder and that it was uncertain exactly how they would be affected. When they were born we did have some difficult times, but things calmed down and everything seemed okay for several months. At six months both girls started having seizures. This brought their development to a halt. We started taking the girls to therapy, which was not always easy since our two older girls were only 6 and 3. What also made it difficult was the fact that there are two of them and appointments can not always be scheduled consecutively. An early interventionist was also coming to our home once a week for more therapy. Because there was a week between appointments, we also had to do therapy “homework” to push progression along until our next visit. This all took several hours a day adding to what was already a very busy household with 4 young children. Even though my husband had wonderful health insurance, we were spending over $400 a month in co-pays for therapy and medication. The early interventionist’s appointments turned into venting sessions for me. There were not many people in my life who could relate to what it was like to be the caretaker of two special needs children. One visit, our early interventionist told me that I needed to stop trying to be the girls’ therapist and go back to being their mother. She said I needed to call the Achievement Academy. At the time I had never heard of the Achievement Academy, but I decided to call. I spoke with the social worker at the school and was told about all the wonderful things that they would be able to offer my children. Individualized therapy, trained classroom teachers and classes full of other students that had many of the same obstacles that my girls had. After hearing all of the benefits of enrolling them, I was certain it would be something that we couldn’t afford. I was shocked to learn that it was a public charter school and all the services provided to us were free of charge and the only responsibility I had was to pay for lunch, just like my other two daughters. When my husband and I went to tour the school were we so surprised to walk into a place that did not feel like the clinics that we had become accustomed to. It was a warm and caring environment where teachers, therapists and even office staff were truly connecting with the children. It was not a medical facility, it was a school. Once our girls started attending we were even more surprised. No longer did we have therapy homework or exercises that must be completed, or therapy sessions that we needed to drive them to. All of these services were taking place at the Achievement Academy. It was no longer just my husband and I trying to take care of these very special girls, it was a whole group of people from teachers to therapists and even administrative staff. It allowed us to become a family again. There are many things that stand out in my mind as I think about what this school has meant to me and my family. This is a group of people who choose to be here. It is not a job, they are truly dedicated to the work that they are doing and it is phenomenal work. The other is that by being here I have realized that Sarah and Rachel are not just people who need care, they have their own mark to leave on the world. They have truly given a gift to their father and I and especially their older sisters by helping us to see the world through someone else’s eyes, to be able to make choices when you know it’s not just you who will be affected. It is a compassion and understanding that is impossible to teach, you must live it. It has now been 4 years since Sarah and Rachel started attending school the Achievement Academy and this will be their last year of eligibility since they turned six in February and it will be time for them to transition to an elementary school. It will be difficult to move on, but I know that the Achievement Academy is a resource that I will be able to use for years to come because they have become our partners in the education of Sarah and Rachel.