Hi there, my name is Kristy McDonnell. I’m the department head of Special Education at Saint Mary’s High School.

I want to say, “Hi,” to anybody who is considering becoming an Eagle.  We look forward to having you here in our school environment.

So, for anybody considering coming to Saint Mary’s, I just want to say there are some great options in special education that could help support you to be successful here in our school. If you are currently on an IEP, receiving supports at your current school, those supports will also follow you here at Saint Mary’s so we can ensure your success.

When you arrive at Saint Mary’s, you will also receive a monitor teacher who will take care of your IEP paperwork as well as connect with you, your classroom teachers and your family to make sure that we’re supporting you in the best way possible. At Saint Mary’s, special education has a resource room where monitor teachers will be housed, where you can visit and advocate if you are in need of any support at school. It’s a place where you can use computers, print assignments, or just meet with your monitor teacher to review assignments and get the supports you require.

For those students who feel like they might need a little more support coming into high school – because it can be a big change – we offer a course called GLE, which is a Learning Strategies course. You can opt for this course in conversation with your current teacher, your current special education teacher and the staff at Saint Mary’s to make sure that it’s the right fit for you. If you do opt for the GLE course that will put you in a classroom with a special education teacher every day. GLE is for credit, but you will also be supported in your other three classes that semester and beyond to ensure you’re successful here at Saint Mary’s.

I think it’s important to mention that at Saint Mary’s, our Special Ed Department also specializes in paving a pathway to the Community for students in the ACTIVE and the Community Living programs. The Community pathway can look like so many things to so many students, so we try to offer a wide variety of experiences in our ACTIVE and Community living pathway. These experiences include getting to know community agencies and the programming that they offer, volunteer experience, community experience, as well as potential paid employment. I think a really great feature of the ACTIVE and Community living programming is that the programming is very flexible. We strive to meet our students where they are and continue to help them to build skills going forward.

I know that I’ve given you a lot of information here about the Special Education department at Saint Mary’s, and I do that just because it’s so fantastic. If you’re interested in learning more about what the Special Education department has to offer, please talk to your grade eight teacher or special education teacher. We will also be able to discuss all these options at your grade eight transition meeting. We’re looking forward to having you Future Eagles come to Saint Mary’s. Looking forward to getting to know you and supporting you in any way we can to help you be successful.