34—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 6, 1973
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Mrs. Alfred Warner....
Driving Exceptional Children To School One Of Her Contributions
Farm
Writer >
Mrs. Charles!
McSparran
Governor Shapp has
proclaimed next week, October 7
- 13, as Exceptional Children’s
Week. What do we mean by ex
ceptional children? How many do
we have in our area? What do we
have to offer these children? How
are they educated and trained?
How is the program funded?
The state code says “Every
child of school age is entitled to
an appropriate school program.
If the school district doesn’t
provide it then the intermediate
unit shall.”
In 1971 Pennsylvania
reorganized. It now has 29 in*
termediate units. Lancaster*
Lebanon is Unit 13. There are 22
school districts in Unit 13. At the
present time we have 548
students in special education
classes in Unit 13 and a total of
over 6000 which includes all in the
itinerant classes.
Mrs. Dorothy 0. Diem,
Lampeter, is administrative
supervisor in charge of special
class services for Lancaster-
Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13.
She is very competent, dedicated
and enthusiastic about the
program and works many very
long days which accounts for the
fine job she has done and is doing.
Unit 13 has a total staff of 200.
They have six case workers who
work with the individual child
and decide where he should be
placed, 13 psychologists who
work with the various super
visors, 135 professional
(teachers) and 65 pari
professional (teacher aides and
secretaries) workers.
Mrs. Wanner is a natural hostess and no one loves to be
entertained more than her two-and-one-half year old
grandson Andrew.
Mrs. Alfred M. Wanner, Narvon RD2, drives this school
student station wagon 93 miles a day to a special education
class.
In Intermediate Unit 13 there
are 63 special education classes,
each with a teacher, then there
are 53 teacher aides who assist in
many of the classes. Mrs. Diem
says “All of our professional staff
members do carry proper cer
tification in appropriate area of
special education. This year due
to teachers not being able to get a
school, we are using some college
graduates for aides.”
Mrs. Diem says “Our
philosophy is-‘Children should be
with their own age group but
sometimes due to their handicap
should be sheltered,’ They should
be in their own school districts
but sometimes due to the severity
of their handicap they must be in
special education classes ”
The services are listed under
Consultative Itinerant Basis and
on Full Time Basis. Consultative
Itinerant Basis services are: (1)
the school psycological services;
(2) the mental health services;
(3) the school case worker ser
vices; (4) programs for visuallv
impaired; (5) speech clinicians;
(6) hearing clinicians; (numbers
4, 5 and 6 benefit many children)
(7) program for mentally gifted;
(8) consultant service to district
special classes; (9) in-service
education to district staff; (10) «
the work experience program of
diversified vocations with vo
tech; (11) the itinerant learning
disabilities resource program.
Full Time Basis services are:
(1) secondary learning
(Usabilities resource rooms; (2)
learning disability classes; (3)
pre-school classes (there are two)
multi-handicapped classes. They
are in them for a short time for
diagnostic service, then referred
to a class. Unit 13 has nine classes
for “Trainables”. There are
several at Mifflin Center which is
located in Mifflin School in
Lancaster. There are two classes
at Leola; (4) detention home
class (they operate for boys and
girls detained by the law. Unit 13
uses Barnes, HaU which is located
at 900 East King Street, Lan
caster. Unit 13 provides the
education program for them but
Lancaster County Com
missioners provide the building);
(5) adjustment classes for
socially maladjusted and
emotionally disturbed—nine
classes; (6) deaf classes-operate
with Pennsylvania School of
Deaf— six classes in Martin Mylin
School and one at Lampeter
Elementary School; (7) trainable
and multi-handicapped trainable
retarded classes (they never
become totally independent.
They must stay in school till 21
years of age. In the case of the
trainable students who can stay
in the Trainable classes only till
14 years of age they then go to an
adolescent trainable class. After
they are 16 the administrator
hopes to get them in a shelter
work class. This year they have
some students at Goodwill In
dustries of Lancaster County,
located in Lancaster city and
some at Lebanon County
Workshop which is located in the
Cornwall District. These students
are still under the guidance of a
teacher and yet getting some
valuable experience in in
dustry.); (8) pre-school program
for hearing impaired-project C
H I L D; (9) physically han-
dicapped classes (three
classrooms for them); (10) pilot
secondary brain injured vo-tech
program lat Willow Street vo
tech for secondary pupils); (11)
summer occupational ex
ploration for secondary educable
retarded students (in cooperation
with vo-tech schools and
operating only in summer).
All funding for these programs
comes from the state. There are,
however, many independent pre
school nursery programs, which
are operated mostly in churches,
which are not funded by the state.
There are instances where
unusual students must travel
long distances due to their par
ticular need. All elementary
special education students in
Catharine Wanner's busy
fingers knit sweaters for gifts
in her moments of relaxation.
One of her prized antiques is
this melodeon.
I ' >
r}K<ik . ■
Mrs. Wanner especially
likes her Grecian pitcher but
has many cherished ones in
her collection.
Lebanon County come to Lititz.
There are two secondary ad
justment classes in Eastern
Lebanon High School. There are
three classes for physically
handicapped.
There are instances where
unusual students must travel
long distances due to their par
ticular need. All elementary
special education students in
Lebanon County come to Lititz.
There are two secondary ad
justment classes in Eastern
Lebanon High School. There are
three classes for physically
handicapped.
There are 75 vehicles owned by
11 contractors who transport
these special education students
in Intermediate Unit 13 and every
student is transported door to
door from his or home to the
school. William Sweigart owns 36
vans and station wagons which
transport the children to special
education schools in Lancaster
County.
One of his 36 drivers is Mrs.
AlfredM. (Catharine J.) Wanner,
Narvon RD2, who is the wife of a
dairy farmer. This is her
eleventh year to drive a station
wagon to Leola Trainable Class
which is located on the second
floor of Leola Memorial Building.
She hauls six children, between
the ages of six and 12 years, this
year and travels 93 miles a day
taking them to school and back to
their homes again. She spends
about three and one-half hours a
day driving. She covers the
eastern central section of Lan
caster County. Her area is coded
D-2. D stands for Conestoga
Valley and 2 stands for the two
classes in Conestoga Valley. This
coding is necessary to briefly
state the area and the schools
wheri necessary, particularly for
school closings in snow and
similar emergencies.
Mrs. Wanner is also a sub
stitute teacher’s aide for the
same school. Mrs. Diem says
“Mrs. Wanner is a very fine
driver and a very helpful and
successful teacher’s aide.”
Mrs. Wanner was associated
with public school cafeterias six
years prior to driving special
education students to school. She
started in 1957 as the manager of
the White Horse School cafeteria
and worked there two years. She
fed about 50 students of the
fourth, fifth and sixth grades of
the public school who were on the
first floor of the building and
seventh and eighth grades of
Amish students a day who were
on the second floor. Following
that she was manager of the
Pequea Valley High School
cafeteria for four years. She had
five helpers plus some extra help
at times to serve the meals there.
They fed approximately 500
students from seventh to 12th
grades.
Catherine, better knows as
“Kitty”, is the daughter of Mrs.
Viola and the late Corson
Stephens. She grew up on their
farm at Sandy Hill on Route 340.
It is located in West Cain
Township in Chester County. It
was a general farm with a small
dairy and about 300 laying hens.
She helped with the chickens, the
care of the lawn and the
housework. She graduated from
Coatesville High School then
worked in the service department
of Sears, Roebuck & Co. at
Coatesville. After she was
married she helped with the farm
work and cleaned the dairy
utensils. She still drives a tractor
in the field sometimes.
Wanners farm 450 acres of
ground—ll 3 acres at their farm
on Wanner Road, Salisbury
Township, where they live, 122
acres on their farm at Sandy Hill
(Continued From Page 36)
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