Three Things: Student transition program and family story

The Philomath School District is exploring the possibility of establishing a separate space for a transition program serving special education students who graduate with modified diplomas.

Barbara Neelands, chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee, presented the concept at the Nov. 13 School Board meeting, advocating for a dedicated facility where students ages 18 to 21 could participate in life skills training and community-based activities.

Neelands has a personal connection to the issue. Her daughter, a senior with autism, will be graduating with a modified diploma this year. While school was enjoyable for her daughter as a freshman, senioritis has set in and she’s ready to move on to the next stage of life. That transition, Neelands emphasized, should feel distinct from the high school experience.

“I think if we could have a separate space where it feels like our students are going to a different program, they’re in a different stage of life, that would really be important for them,” Neelands said. “They’re not coming back to high school, it’s not taking classes still at the high school. It really is a separate program and having a separate space for them would align with that.”

The program would focus on teaching essential skills that prepare these young adults for independent living.

“They still need to learn how to use a washer and dryer, how to cook a meal, how to plan a budget, how to get on that bus and go to the grocery store and buy for yourself,” Neelands explained.

A potential partnership with Work Unlimited, a Corvallis-based organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, could enhance the program. Chris Singer, the organization’s employment manager and a district parent, outlined how Work Unlimited could provide day support activities and employment training as part of the transition services.

Neelands emphasized that students need to be actively engaged in the community rather than continuing in a traditional classroom setting they’ve already experienced for four years.

“We have places these kids can go and do things and then come back to our building and do a life skills program, work with Chris’s team and do those things that gets them out, gets them learning more than what they’re going to learn in the room they’ve been sitting in for four years already,” Neelands said.

Neelands noted that SEAC currently has just three core members — participation that didn’t rebound after the pandemic — but the committee hopes to recruit more this year. Despite the district’s small size, she stressed the importance of meeting the obligation to students with modified diplomas.

Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday said there have been discussions about possible partnerships and potential locations for the program. The Philomath Youth Activities Club’s building on South 19th Street that was recently vacated by a credit union was mentioned.

“There are a couple of things that are out and about to be explored,” Halliday said. “Of course, we can’t bond until 2030 to get us to a space where we could consider something bigger.”

On the PYAC building, the organization’s Eddie Van Vlack said there are no plans yet on what to do with that space until decisions are made with an expansion of its neighboring clubhouse.

“We have been in discussions with the district about allowing them to use it, if it will meet their needs,” he said.

If any potential sites fall through, Halliday said the district should see what can be done with existing spaces. Beyond the physical location, however, is just the goal of providing those young adults with important life skills.

“I see it as part facility but also part programmatic opportunity,” she said.

The discussion about life skills led School Board member Ryan Cheeke to suggest that all students should be receiving that type of instruction — learning how to change a tire on a car, for example. 

“I think you’re hearing support for this,” Klipfel told Halliday. “I encourage you to work with the committee and find options here.”

2. Finding a father

Regular readers may have noticed a story published Friday morning about the current state of the Benton County Genealogical Society and its need to increase membership and attract leadership.

Genealogy is one of my private passions — I’ve traced my own family history back to the 17th century when Gill Fuquett, a Huguenot colonist, emigrated from Wales to Virginia Colony about 1684. My sons are the 13th generation in America.

When family historians get together, we like to talk about our discoveries, including the so-called “brick walls” that we’ve broken through to learn more about our ancestors. So while I was interviewing George Davidson, the outgoing president of the BCGS, I had to ask about his own genealogical journey.

“On the north side of Marys Peak, there used to be an old town called Peak, Oregon,” Davidson started out. “My father was born there, my grandparents and great grandparents are buried there. So, the family tries to keep the Davidson cemetery cleaned out, which is in dire need right now.”

Davidson said the cemetery is the final resting place for 13 individuals with the last burial occurring in the early 1940s.

Then he shared more into this family background — and it turned out to be a bit of a complicated one.

“I was adopted by my father, Melvin Davidson,” he said. “My biological father is a story in itself.”

The story involves his mother’s brief relationship with a soldier at Camp Adair, who was then shipped off to Germany (and was awarded a Purple Heart). She became pregnant but never was able to reconnect with him.

“I tracked him down in Iowa and wrote him a letter and sent the pictures and information that I had and said, ‘I think you’re my father,’” Davidson told me, this interaction occurring in the 1990s. “His name was on my birth certificate.”

About 30 days later, Davidson heard back and he was accepted into the family. He found out that he had three half-siblings and traveled to Iowa to meet them all. Unfortunately, his biological father had lung cancer and died within a year of when he first met him.

“It was kind of neat that I tracked him down,” Davidson said. “I’ve got a picture of he and I sitting together — and we could be twins.”

(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).