Sisters play a key role in helping special-needs students at St. Colman’s

St. Colman’s Home in Water­vliet is getting by with a little help from their friends. Well actually, their sisters.

St. Colman’s, once an orphanage for boys and girls and now a school for special-needs children, has operated with the help of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary since its foundation. The school, which functions on the grounds of the order’s main house, operates two day-programs: one for students with emotional disabilities and one for students with autism, as well as a full-time residential program for autistic children and teens up to the age of 20.

Now, the staff is working harder than ever as the school navigates remote learning and social distancing for special-needs students during the pandemic. 

“It’s hard. They really need to be in the classroom,” said Sister James Marie Carras, PBVM, director of education.

“It’s a challenge, and even more of a challenge when working with students with special needs,” said Beth Pellegrino, director and principal for the school’s emotional disabilities program. “I never thought in my life that I’d see this.”

St. Colman’s needed an all-hands-on-deck approach to make a safe and enjoyable educational experience happen for its students. Fortunately, they have sisters who are always ready to help those in need.

“I love working with the sisters because they bring a certain element to the school,” Pellegrino said. “It’s pretty great that we have them and their support.”

MEETING NEEDS

In 2019, some 498,486 students and youths with disabilities were receiving special education programs and services in New York State, according to a report by the New York State Education Department.

A number of the services students receive, such as speech therapy, occupational therapy or physical therapy, thrive in an in-person setting. The challenge for the sisters and staff at St. Colman’s has been finding a way to teach skills remotely that can’t easily be taught through a screen.

“We’re teaching social and emotional goals as well,” said Johanna McGrath, middle-school special education teacher at St. Colman’s. “Students have goals about socialization, so if you don’t have the opportunity to socialize, you’re not able to address those goals.”

Starting in the fall of 2020, St. Colman’s began operating on a hybrid schedule, allowing students and families in-person instruction while still ensuring social distance for safety.

According to the school’s website, students attend in-person on a two-consecutive day schedule (Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday) switching groups every other Wednesday. When not attending in-person, students receive remote instruction that best suits their needs. This may be supplemental worksheets, Google Classroom, Zoom meetings, phone conversations with families, etc.

“Everybody’s doing the best that we can,” McGrath said, “and these kids want to be here. They are happy to come when they do.”

McGrath uses supplemental worksheets for students to use at home on the days they can’t be in the classroom. Every class is tailored to the needs of its students: some are okay with Zoom teaching, others are not. It’s all based on trial and error, most of which took place back in the spring.

McGrath was teaching remotely every day after the initial shutdown in March of 2020 and saw that the change was difficult for her students. Some families didn’t have full-day access to a computer, while other students weren’t comfortable using the resource at all.

“One of my students won’t get on a Zoom call. Even when we do it in school … he’s shy and won’t do it,” she said.

For others, remote learning was the answer they needed. Sister Joseph Mary Stedina, PBVM, an assistant for social services, hasn’t seen one of her students since last March when she began learning remotely full-time. 

“Beforehand, she couldn’t stay in school. She would have to go home by 11:30 a.m., that’s how traumatized she was,” Sister Joseph Mary said. Now, she’s been doing well since switching to remote learning full-time. “Some of them can do it; others need to come back.”

HERE TO HELP

Sister Miriam Ann Thompson, PBVM, a teacher’s assistant, works with high school and older students in the autism program. The work takes a lot of understanding and kindness, she said, but the students are worth it.

“We had one student who struggled with his face mask; he hated having it on,” Sister Miriam Ann said. Six out of the seven students in her class are non-verbal, making it difficult at times to convey the need for new protocols like face masks. But the kids are smart, she says, and they pick up in their own way.

“Non-verbal students, they understand a lot,” Sister Miriam Ann added. “If you point to your mask and then point to them, they know to correct it. They know when you’re in school, you do this.”

And not all students mind the changes: “One student — who is verbal — is happy to wear his mask. He says, ‘I don’t want to get sick, I want to wear my mask.’ ” Sister Miriam Ann said. “Another student loves our hand sanitizer. He likes the smell of it almost too much, and we have to tell him, okay that’s enough!” she laughs.

Sister Rosemary Cuneo, CR, started working as a teacher’s ­assistant with McGrath’s class in September. After leaving St. Madeleine Sophie School due to budget cuts from COVID-19, she prayed on what to do as her next step. “I prayed it all through with my community and we decided that God might be calling me to special education,” she said.

It was the perfect decision: “I absolutely love the children and the ministry,” she said.

McGrath said that having Sister Rosemary’s input “has been wonderful” for her class. “It’s an added bonus that she’s doing this for me. She has such a good relationship with these kids … a lot of her themes are about kindness and the kids just love her.”

Sister Rosemary posts daily videos to McGrath’s Google Classroom page for students to view on their remote days. “I try to make it interesting,” Sister Rosemary said. “I send a joke of the day or a happy message of the day. I’ll read a book or post a video or have coloring pages they can print.”

Everything she does is for her students — or “little saints,” as Sister Rosemary calls them: “I call them ‘little saints’ because they’re going to heaven,” she said. “They don’t have the major sins that we have. This is not all there is, here on earth. They remind us of that.”

Sister Rosemary says that being able to work for the school “is a beautiful work of God.

“I don’t know what my life would be like without religious life, but it’s because of religious life that we help.”

“It started from the sisters,” Sister Joseph Mary added. “Their whole idea was working with the people who need help.”