Students continue to flourish in special needs program

BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) – Simple trips out and about have become an important program for local special needs students.

When special needs teacher Donnis Kaut, known to her friends as “Pidge,” started working in the Boardman schools 36 years ago she began taking some of her special needs students out into the community.

“We’d go to restaurants. We’d go to stores, just shop, maybe get some groceries for cooking at school,” said Kaut. “So that’s kind of where it started.”

Now, Boardman’s “Community-Based Education Program” has about two dozen students working a couple hours each week at nearly 20 local businesses.

“I’m really good about finding jobs to do at places, so when we go to places to work I’m like, ‘well our kids can do that’,” said Kaut.

A number of these students have been working at the North Lima Dairy Queen for the last couple of years performing tasks like food prep, stocking the freezer and clean-up work before going back to school where they take life skills courses.

“We talk about interviews, job applications–just those soft skills too,” said Kaut. “Talking and communicating with each other.”

Workers at the store say they’ve seen the results of what the kids are learning saying the program helps build their confidence.

“They have grown on me; they’re excellent kids,” said Dairy Queen shift leader Debra Kimble. “They’re fast workers. You know it’s a great learning experience for them.”

Kaut says while many of the kids in the program land jobs after graduation, her own career is coming to an end as she plans to retire at the end of the school year, but she still plans to continue working with students preparing them for life after school

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