GracePoint Christian School’s board, which is made up of Cobb County residents and parents, has chosen Susan Wing to serve as the new principal. She recently retired from Cobb Schools after 32 years.
“I had the best job in the world,” she said about McClure Middle School in Kennesaw, where she was the principal for the last six years. “It was a great school, I loved my kids, but I needed more flexibility with my time. God brought me this opportunity.”
Wing, who started her career as a special education teacher, said her experience in helping open McClure in 2006 contributed to her being selected as the school’s principal.
“I’ve had an opportunity to start a new school, and it’s an amazing opportunity so it kind of creates a blend of starting something from the ground up from a Christian perspective but also full circle with my roots in working with children with disabilities,” she said.
GracePoint will call Riverstone Church, located at 2005 Stilesboro Road in Kennesaw, its home for the first year and look for a new location during that time.
Wing said they have already enrolled five students and anticipate adding another five to seven before school starts on Aug. 13. They will serve students in first through eighth grades. Tuition is set at $18,500 per student for the year.
In addition to Wing, there will also be three teachers, one from Cornerstone Prep Academy in Acworth and two others who have worked for Cobb Schools. They are all certified to teach children with disabilities, and the school received the Georgia Special Needs Program accreditation last week.
GracePoint Board member and parent Molly Holm said she chose to send her 8-year-old son, Paul, to GracePoint because there wasn’t anywhere else in Cobb that could provide such a service for her child.
“If your child has dyslexia, it’s a huge lifestyle change,” she said. “It just feels like this type of student was not serviced in Cobb County.”
Holm’s husband, Trey, serves on the school’s board along with Brian and Angie Strack, Owen Prillaman and Jud Thompson. The board’s president and school co-founder is dyslexia expert Brenda Fitzgerald, who is the executive director of the Georgia Education Training Association and a board member with the Georgia International Dyslexic Association.
The school is hosting a meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. for parents interested in enrolling their child at the school. Additional information can also be found on the school’s website at www.gracepointschool.org.
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The State literally washes their hands of responsibility and is off the hook legally.
Yes, the receiving private schools have to meet a parent's expectations (like any other private school does) but there is absolutely ZERO legal recourse if a parent feels (or in-fact knows) a child's needs aren't being met specific to their child's disability.
No guarantee of least restrictive environment, special services, curriculum or teaching modifications, assistive technology, transition services and other specialized services such as physical, occupational, and speech therapy, etc..
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Why is this? Well, because the moment you accept the special needs scholarship you lose all rights, services, and guarantees afforded to your child under IDEA (The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).
You can seriously take a public district to task if your child's needs aren't met under IDEA. Your rights are HUGE!
At the private school, you can withdraw.
I would love to hear a curriculum planner's reasoning as to why they don't do this.
What Cobb lacks is AFFORDABLE choices for students with reading disorders. Why there is not a public elementary school that serves these children is beyond me. Cobb schools could pay for it from the legal fees they would save by not being sued by these kids' parents.
The Wilson Reading System is not rocket science.
All Cobb schools should have a program for Dyslexia and not Umbrella it under "learning disabilities". That's the real problem, the language program they do use was not created for dyslexic students, it was created for learning disabilities, that is a big difference! Its kind of like teaching a student Spanish with a Latin book!