New digs for New Directions school

A man taped a “wet paint” sign on the front door last week of a warehouse building on Standish Avenue off Todd Road.

It was an outward indication of the transformation within, where painters, construction workers, teachers and therapists worked busily to prepare the space for its debut Monday as the new campus of a small therapeutic school, New Directions.

They began the move from the school’s old location in a 120-year-old building at the corner of Stony Point and Todd roads the previous Saturday, giving them just a week to prepare it for students’ return.

“We’re working hard to get the doors open in time,” said Robin Bowen. She’s executive director of the Child Parent Institute, which runs New Directions.

As people installed TV mounts and wall clocks, natural light flowed through skylights onto the freshly painted cream, navy and burgundy walls, some of which were already decorated with children’s holiday-themed artwork.

Outside in what was the parking lot, a backhoe moved dirt in what would become a fenced-in play area.

In addition to three classrooms, the new facility includes a media center stocked with books and an expansive common room that will serve as dining area, meeting space and gym.

New Directions since 1980 has taught children grades 6 through 12 who have suffered some form of trauma and as a result have fallen behind in a traditional school environment. In 2013, it merged with CPI, which provides counseling for children who are the victims of abuse or neglect and parent education and support.

The roughly $850,000 relocation was prompted by a desire to have the school in closer proximity to the other services CPI provides, Bowen said. “The old school was just a mile away, but it might as well have been 100.”

Funding for the expansion came mainly from donations from benefactors such as St. Joseph Health and Jean Schulz, an investor in Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.

New Directions will now share a building with CPI’s Parent Education Center, where students’ parents often take classes. A large room in a nearby building, where CPI is headquartered, is being converted to an art therapy space. The new location offers lower maintenance costs, updated facilities and greater capacity for new technology, Bowen said.

A group of teachers and teacher aides cheered Tuesday as workers installed a large flat-screen monitor on the wall of a new classroom. It and others were paid for by the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa.

Technology-based curricula has been found to be particularly effective for students with learning disabilities, New Directions’ Principal/Director Cathy Wisor said. For that reason, she hopes to equip each student at the school with an iPad. Currently, one-third of students have them. They’re seeking grants to help purchase the others.

At the old facility, they were limited to using old-fashioned projectors, CPI’s Marketing Director Tiffani Montgomery said.

New Directions is one of 11 nonpublic schools in the county, which are certified by the California Department of Education to provide special services to students using funds from local school districts.

It serves up to 36 students who are referred there by schools in any of the county’s 40 districts. Currently, students from nine districts attend.

Students are divided into three heavily staffed classes, which include a teacher and two aides. Each student is also assigned a therapist. Each week, students get a minimum hour of individual therapy and an additional hour of group therapy.

The goal, Wisor said, is to help kids get back on track emotionally and academically so they can return to public school. A student’s average time at the school ranges from a year to 18 months.

Art, along with fitness, is a major focus for the school, she said.

Teacher Abel Damkoehler said he was already planning a clay art project to help students transition into their new space.

On the Friday before school let out for the week of Thanksgiving, the school held a sort of goodbye ceremony to prepare students who may have bad associations with change for the pending move. They gave students a feather and a stone. The feather was supposed to symbolize something they were leaving behind, like bad days or the old school’s aging bathrooms. The rock symbolized something they wanted to take with them. They chose things like hope, good times and friendship.

“Some students have anxiety about the move, but I think overall they’re pretty excited,” Damkoehler said. “The process of letting go really helped.”

Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin stopped in Tuesday to tour the new facilities. She said she was glad to see organizations like CPI expanding into the educational arena to provide more services for such students.

“As a former school board member,” she said, “I’m all too painfully aware of the many, many children who fall through the cracks.”

Staff Writer Jamie Hansen blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach her at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jamiehansen.