Huntsville
Dyslexia School needs a new home
Huntsville’s Greengate School is looking for a new home for the next
school year. The school, now in its second year for students K-8th
grade has outgrown the donated space graciously provided by Sherwood
Baptist Church on Old Madison Pike in Huntsville.
Greengate School is a not for profit school in Huntsville for children
with learning differences in language. Starting in 2002, the school’s
mission has been to educate and support bright children who have specific
learning differences in reading, spelling or writing so that they may
realize their full potential.
Greengate School currently
occupies the top floor of the fellowship hall building of Sherwood
Baptist Church on Old Madison Pike in Huntsville. The church donates the
space to Greengate as a community outreach to elementary students who
struggle because of dyslexia.
“We
have been very fortunate; linking up with Sherwood was absolutely what we
needed to get started in 2002. Sherwood has been more than generous and
we will always have fond memories of our first home there,” Greengate
Board President John Allen said.
The
donated space from Sherwood Baptist church has been ideal for the
fledgling school, providing classrooms, tutoring rooms, a lunch room, a
playground, a gym and lots of green space. The school started in 2002
with three students and growing to five has more than doubled this year
with twelve students and nine teachers and tutors. In addition to a
standard curriculum, each student gets an individual, one hour of
multi-sensory language instruction each day to accelerate each child’s
reading progress.
In
addition to Greengate’s charter as a school for children with reading
differences, Greengate strives to assist others in the community. In
addition to its full time elementary program, Greengate provides
after-hours dyslexia tutoring during the school year for public and home
school students, a summer reading camp for children, and Orton-Gillingham
(dyslexia) training for local parents, teachers and tutors.
“Even though we are still small, our individual tutoring for each child
requires more space than in a traditional school setting. We feel that
six classrooms and spaces for one on one tutoring will fill our needs,”
School Director Marcia Ramsey said.
Greengate students have big ideas about what they would like to see in a
new school home.
Inside the school the students
have particular wishes. "We need a separate science room with big white
boards where we can do more experiments," Ian Briggs, age 11, said. We
also need bigger classrooms and desks with heated seats and back rubbers
built in. Oh, and real lockers too," ten year old Courtney Volinski
added.
Philip Hall would like a
special room for a particular subject too. - "I'd like us to have a
special history room with a map of Alabama on the floor like in Early
Works," Phillip, age 7, said.
The
one on one tutoring that happens at Greengate has special needs too.
"Good rooms for tutoring are important. They should be small and provide
for a minimum of noise and no distractions - a good atmosphere, twelve
year old Mark Allen said.
Elise Galindo would like to see a big playground set with a lot of
swings, rings, and a really tall slide with a play house at the top.
Founded in 2001,
Greengate School Inc. is a non-profit Alabama corporation.
