Empowering every learner: A true Center of Excellence.
Easterseals NH is embarking on building a new purpose-built school for its Manchester-based residential-education programs on its Zachary Road campus.
The new Gammon Academy School is specifically designed to meet the accessibility standards the students we serve deserve. A true center of excellence, the school will have larger classrooms, upgraded technology, wider hallways to accommodate students with mobility aids, student support rooms, and space where therapists can provide occupational, speech, and physical therapy sessions.
Easterseals NH was awarded $5M in Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery from the State of New Hampshire to design and build the school. Easterseals NH matched this funding with its own $5M in funding.
The new two-story, 27,340 square foot school will replace our existing two schools in Manchester both of which do not meet the needs of the population we serve as one was once a medical office building and the other was a nursing home with the average classroom size of 300 sq. feet. The enhancements will include:
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classrooms, each approximately 800 sq. feet. This allows for students of all abilities as well as their teachers and paraprofessionals to have ample space to learn and move about the classrooms.
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conference rooms for staff to meet together for training and professional development, for students to use for group activities and for families to participate in activities with their students. The current schools do not have space for such activities.
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rooms for speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy nursing, and other therapeutic care.
Further Enhancements
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Increased ability to serve more students from the current capacity of 130 students to 150 students.
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Upgraded technology to include smart monitors in each classroom, individual devices for each student, and the ability for teachers to share curriculum with each student to their own device.
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Rooms for speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy nursing, and other therapeutic care.
Background
Our residential-education programs operate a residential and educational treatment program for youth ages 5 through 21 across three locations, two in Manchester, and one in Lancaster. The programs are licensed to serve up to 157 students from states throughout New England. We serve youth with an array of abilities. Our students have faced challenges in other learning environments due to their neurodivergence, difficulty with communication and other factors that impact their ability to function in the traditional school setting. Many of the students have experienced significant trauma in addition to their learning challenges. Our residential programs are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation and Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), the highest level of quality assurance that a residential program can obtain. This is an administrative and programmatic accomplishment and speaks to the program’s level of knowledge, professionalism, and ability to provide impactful services. Our schools are certified by the New Hampshire Department of Education as Non-Public Schools as well as approved Special Education Programs. Because of these successes, we are able to award a Gammon Academy high school diploma.
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