Every student has had at least once thought that their teachers actually lived at school. Times have changed, however, and now students can live there too. Late this summer, North Allegheny announced the addition of a new apartment room in NASH.
The apartment is located on the third floor in room 301A, formerly the teachers’ lounge.
“This will be used for all daily living skills classes, which are part of the special education program,” Special Education teacher Ms. Melinda Beck stated.
Not all students currently have access to the apartment, but that does not mean they will not have access to it in the future.
“We’re looking to partner with all students to complete the program,” NASH Principal Mr. Matthew Buchak said.
The program is going to help special education students learn necessary skills to be prepared for living arrangements in the future.
Before this year, Life Skills students practiced such skills in a classroom apartment attached to the NASH library on the second floor. The new room on the third floor, however, is a significant improvement on the former space.
“We were able to create a real-life apartment,” Buchak said. “It is designed to help develop the skills on how to live independently.”
Students will be able to learn many skills with all of opportunities offered to them.
“We have a washer and dryer this year, which we can actually use,” Beck said. “We’re no longer pretending. We have the resources the students will have after they leave NASH.”
There are many resources available in the apartment, and more are on the way.
“We are going to work on safety, so we’re going to get a Ring doorbell so we can work on stranger danger,” Beck said, “[and we’re learning] cooking, cleaning, personal hygiene, and making a bed.”
The opportunity was made possible with a generous local donation.
“This is something we’ve always had in our programming, but now we were able to create this space with a donation from a local philanthropist. The donation was substantial enough to fund this project,” Buchak reported.
The local donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, had a child who went through the Life Skills program at NASH.
“Because their student came through the program, they were in the apartment that was downstairs, which didn’t have all the resources we have here. We were really able to upgrade due to their generosity,” Beck said.
The parents of current Life Skills students are especially impressed.
Ms. Darla Efremenko, whose son utilizes the apartment, stated, “I had a chance to be in the apartment at the Open House. I was impressed with the curriculum that goes along with the apartment. It sounds like a well-rounded, thoughtful way of providing independent living skills for the transition to life beyond high school.”
With all of the new opportunities that the third-floor apartment classroom present, NASH juniors and seniors in the program will be all the better prepared for life after graduation.
