John Danes shows Emerson Morris, 13, where to place clean towels that will be returned outside various classrooms around Liberty K-6th grade school building.
LIBERTY — Ten exceptional learners attending Liberty schools will be learning new skills while helping the district become increasingly green in its operations.
The school district recently developed a program to reduce waste by lowering the use of paper towels used to clean surfaces and replacing them with cloth towels.
Instead of limiting the good being done to reduce the district’s environmental impact, Katie Critell, Liberty schools district-wide intervention support specialist, suggested creating learning opportunities for students with individualized learning programs.
“We could go green and have the students learn the life skill of doing the laundry,” Critell said.
Working with the Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Critell and other district employees developed a program allowing special needs students to collect dirty towels, and take them to a laundry area to be washed, dried and folded. The students then will replace the number of dirty towels collected with clean ones.
“The students are learning organizational skills by counting and keeping track of the towels,” Critell said. “They are learning the importance of protecting themselves — thoroughly washing their hands and faces, wearing the appropriate clothing, gloves, and masks; loading and washing dirty
clothing.
“Once the towels are washed and dried, they are carefully folded and placed in locations where they are picked up and cleaned.”
Every skill is modified to the students’ level, Critell said.
There are five stations around the elementary school where towels are placed. Each station has two milk crates. One, with a red mark, is where dirty towels are placed. The second crate, which has a green mark, is where clean towels are placed.
Students push laundry carts around the school to collect the dirty towels and return to the sites with the clean ones.
John Danes, a transition specialist with the Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities, emphasized the program is giving the students life skills they can use both in their homes and at jobs in the community.
“We’ve placed our graduates at laundromats, housekeeping at area hotels and other locations needing people to do this kind of work,” Danes said.
Students participating in the training program must be 10 to 15 years old.
While the program is beginning in the elementary school, the district wants to expand it to the high school.
The washer and dryer were given to the district last year through a program called Donors Choose. The district also received some towels, carts, and milk crates from an anonymous donor.
rsmith@tribtoday.com
The Link LonkNovember 07, 2020 at 12:19PM
https://www.vindy.com/news/local-news/2020/11/liberty-students-learn-life-skills-by-doing-the-laundry/
Liberty students learn life skills by doing the laundry - Youngstown Vindicator
https://news.google.com/search?q=Laundry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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