Pinpoints Pinpoints Magazine Spring 2020 | Page 27

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A CONVERSATION.
“
Mrs. Childers recalls:

My first contact with The Lexington

School was an interview with Marijo

Foster in May 2002 for a learning
specialist position. I had such a sense of belonging
when I entered the building, and it continued as I
met with Marijo. Following our initial conversation,
she asked me to wait as she made several phone calls.
While I found this a slightly unusual interview practice,
I soon learned she was phoning Head of School John
Fixx, Director of Preschool Mary Beers, and Lower
School Head Susan Touchstone. Suddenly, all were in
her office, and I was in the midst of a mega-interview! I
thank each of those folks for having faith in me.
For the next several years, our Resource Room
program developed and expanded, moving to several
locations, finally settling in a spacious classroom
in the new lower school building. Demand for the
program increased, though, and teachers were added
through the years.
In 2008, Head Chuck Baldecchi and current parent
Brutus Clay ’85 met with me and proposed Brutus’s vision
of a school for students with dyslexia. When asked if I
would be interested in investigating this type of program,
a huge yes was my response. For years, I had realized
some of our students needed more intensive instruction
and many probably had undiagnosed dyslexia. To
me, this proposal was a no-brainer – a game-changer
for students in The Lexington School and the greater
Lexington community.
On a November afternoon in 2009, I paced anxiously
outside the library like an expectant father while the
Board of Trustees debated whether to approve The
Learning Center program. It was such a relief when
administrators were invited back into the meeting. I
was moved to tears to learn the Trustees took the bold
step and approved The Learning Center. Patience and a
nearly two-year process had paid off.
I awoke the next day, wondering if I really had
agreed to take on the creation of this program. But
the panic was brief. My passion and empathy for
students and families came back into focus. It was
time to start planning.
A whirlwind ensued! The result of a task force
determined the program would be a school-within-a-
school model, allowing students to receive intensive
instruction in academic content in the Center, while
attending specials classes with their same-aged peers.
This type program would provide the best possible
educational experience for students by including them in
a whole-school environment. Program space was secured,
then renovated. While it was good space and attractively
appointed, logistics placed students as far away from their
peers as possible.
Teachers were hired and trained. Design, furnishings,
and curriculum resources were selected and purchased.
Public information meetings were scheduled. All tasks
had to be completed in a nine-month time frame.
Originally, plans were made for eight students and one
teacher in addition to me. Thankfully, with the foresight
of Chuck Baldecchi and Bob Thompson, facilities were
designed to accommodate sixteen students. As predicted
by colleagues in other schools, we opened with sixteen
students. By mid-year, we had an enrollment of twenty
students and five teachers! Truly, the need was present
in the Lexington community and remains so today, as
enrollment now is sixty-six students.
Through the years, the program took over space in
different parts of the school. Finally, there was no more
space to capture. My dream that The Learning Center
students would have classrooms next to their same-aged
peers came true in August 2019. Through the ONE
School campaign, all students in grades one through
eight now walk the hallways arm in arm.
I am grateful for how that mega-interview and the
resulting opportunity to be a part of this incredible
community has changed my life!
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