While our Life Enrichment Education Program (LEEP) continues to be understaffed, the existing team is working diligently every day to serve students and families. This story highlights one LEEP team member, Transition Teacher Richard Lee, whose dedication is making a difference for LEEP students.
Richard overcame dyslexia as a child, which made him want to “pay it forward” to help other students with learning challenges. “I was not able to read until the 3rd grade and I fell behind. But with the right support and staff, I was able to succeed,” Richard shared. This personal experience, plus his years of working with special education students running a resource program in San Francisco, inspired him to want to work with the students experiencing moderate to severe disabilities in LEEP.
The LEEP post-high program helps students ages 18 to 21 experiencing complex disabilities gain skills they need to transition from high school student to adult community member. Richard and his colleagues had to adapt during the pandemic to continue to teach life skills to students. Richard explained, “The things we normally do in post-high include going into the community, volunteering at the library, working at dog services, taking job tours and going shopping. In the past couple of years, we’ve had to make some adjustments.
“COVID has challenged us to continue teaching and learning life skills in different ways. Last year during our comprehensive distance learning, as a staff we decided we wanted to do something to feel connected to the community despite being behind our screens every day. We decided that we, with the support of our students’ families, would make holiday cards and give them to the children in St. Vincent’s Hospital. We have continued this tradition of school service projects, and most recently sent Valentine’s cards.”
Richard is thankful for the closer connections he’s made with families during the past year, and for the incredible teamwork of his LEEP colleagues.
“Although this has been a trying couple of years for all of us, my number one takeaway was that we’ve been able to make closer connections with our families and students’ home lives,” Richard said. “It’s been a privilege and a learning experience being able to work with them so closely on a day-to-day basis. Now that we have gone back to the classroom, our connections have continued to grow stronger.
“My classroom wouldn’t be as successful without my staff and everyone else who supports us, like our speech pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses and behaviorists. With my staff, we’ve strived to support each other and support other classrooms when needed. My staff has done an incredible job during these times, and it’s because we operate as a team and maximizing each person’s strengths. I couldn’t be more proud, and I could not have asked for a better team.”
Assistant Special Education Director Robin Shobe praised Richard as a “quiet leader” on the LEEP team extremely deserving of appreciation and recognition, and noted that she has frequent requests from staff wanting to be assigned to his classroom.
Thank you, Richard, for the important work you do every day helping students develop knowledge and skills that increase decision making, self-advocacy, independence and access to a full life!
