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South Carolina opens first free school for children with dyslexia

Lakes and Bridges Charter School is one of only five free public schools in the nation for students with dyslexia and the first one in South Carolina.
Credit: Ron Barnett/ Greenville News
Fourth and fifth graders at Lakes and Bridges Charter School work during a special instruction program.

Easley, SC (Greenville News) - I'm happy to report that Lakes and Bridges Charter School is open for business.

The school, which is focused on helping students with dyslexia, opened this year.

Lakes and Bridges Charter School is one of only five free public schools in the nation for students with dyslexia and the first one in South Carolina.

This year, it’s operating as a school within a school, at Crosswell Elementary, near Easley. Although it’s located in Pickens County, the school is chartered through the state Charter School District and is open to students with dyslexia from anywhere in South Carolina.

Because of the rarity of such a program being offered tuition-free, several students’ families have relocated from other states to get in.

“We’ve had a family from Georgia who moved here, we have a family from Indiana moving here,” Principal Heidi Bishop said, “because we’re only the fifth one in the country that offers a free education for children with dyslexia

About 40 percent of the 110 students now enrolled are from Pickens County, with another 40 percent from Greenville, and the rest from Anderson, Charleston, Columbia and Greenwood, she said.

Considering that about 20 percent of all kids are dyslexic, and taking into account the high cost of private schools that work with such students, it’s easy to see why this place is in demand. And the demand will surely grow as the school, now serving grades 1-5, adds a grade each year until it becomes a K-8 school.

Dyslexic students in the regular public schools get help from special education classes, but the quality of the instruction varies widely, Bishop said.

“Some schools are doing a pretty good job of meeting the needs of children, and some are not doing a good job,” she said.

Even a top-notch school such as Greenville County’s A.J. Whittenberg Elementary wasn’t meeting the needs of Alisha Link’s son, Levi.

“They were wonderful and really tried to help, but they just really didn’t speak his language,” Alisha told me during my visit to Lakes and Bridges.

“He just wasn’t catching on to his letters and numbers, even his colors. He just couldn’t grasp it, so I knew that there was something not correct.”

Let me back up for a minute here and give you some background on this new charter school.

In case you're not clear on the concept, charter schools are tuition-free public schools that operate independently, often with special populations of students, and are free from some of the regulations that govern traditional schools.

Two summers ago, three retired teachers invited me to meet with them at one of their homes just across the long bridge over Lake Hartwell into Oconee County. It seemed like an appropriate place for planning a school called Lakes and Bridges Charter School.

It brought to mind an image that I used to lead into the story I did at the time: “For children who live with dyslexia, trying to succeed in school may feel a little like standing on the shore of Lake Hartwell and being asked to jump across to the other side.

“A group of retired teachers and parents are working to build a bridge across that lake.”

They recognized the need and by the time I met with them they already had started raising start-up money – including a $100,000 individual donation.

Because they wanted to make the school available to students across the Upstate, they sought their charter through the state, rather than through one of the local school districts. It received its charter last year.

In order to make it work, the state’s charter school law had to be tweaked to allow the school to turn away students who don’t meet the criteria for dyslexia. Other charter schools can’t turn away students unless they’ve reached capacity enrollment.

Crosswell Elementary is only a temporary home for Lakes and Bridges. The school has secured a lease on a building at 1600 E. Main Street, Easley – the former Chevrolet dealership building, which more recently was home to 5 Point Church. The building will have to be renovated to align with state school building codes before the school can move in.

Although it’s not affiliated with the School District of Pickens County, the district has been “a big supporter” of Lakes and Bridges – which is rare, since local school districts tend to see charter schools as competition.

The charter school needed at least seven classrooms and two offices – and Crosswell happened to have just that available.

“Everything we have done, when we thought we were going to hit a stumbling block, a door opened,” Bishop said.

So, back to the present. I was there on the second week of the school year, in one of those offices with the principal and school mom Alisha Link, holding her 5-month-old daughter as she stuffed envelopes on volunteer duty.

Her son Levi is attending the school with his twin brother, Caleb, who has less trouble but also shows some dyslexic tendencies.

She’s already seen the difference in Levi.

“Last year, he just would tell me, he would say, ‘Mommie I can’t go to that group. That’s for the smart kids,’” she said.

After school one day this year, he demonstrated how he has learned to count to 100 by 10s — something he couldn’t do before.

“So that day I said, ‘buddy, does that make you feel smart?’ He said, ‘Mommy, I am smart.’”

I was impressed with the teachers at Lakes and Bridges, particularly with Cissy Floyd, a PIE interventionist. (PIE stands for Personalized Instruction and Enrichment.)

Like many of the 15 teachers and three administrators there, she took a cut in pay to join the school. She was principal of Central Elementary before, which went from being one of the lowest performing schools in the district to being the top Title 1 school during her three years there.

“I firmly have believed in the mission of this school since the idea originated,” she told me. “It is amazing to see these children, already the progress they’re making.”

She started her career as a special education teacher. “I’m back to my passion,” she said.

I think there’s going to be a lot of passion around this place as the world opens up for kids who’ve felt out of place in it their whole lives.

Contact Ron Barnett at rbarnett@gannett.com.

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