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Schools

With faith, a devoted mom opens special needs school

The mother of a Down's syndrome child isn't discouraged that her new special needs school opens with just two students.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published August 17, 2005

LEALMAN - For a time, Esther Berry spent three hours a day driving her son who has Down's syndrome back and forth from a Christian school that focused on the needs of exceptional students. When the school was relocated even further away from her Clearwater home, the commute became too much.

Berry, 55, came up with a solution. On Aug. 3, she opened a school of her own.

Esther's School, which holds classes at Solid Rock Christian Ministries, 4128 28th St. N, opened with two students. One is her son, Bobby, 15. The other, Christian Brandenburg, 11, is the son of a mother who felt she had exhausted most options for her autistic child.

Berry, who seems perennially cheerful, is not discouraged by her school's small enrollment. She expects two more students in September and is projecting an enrollment of 15 to 20 by the end of the school year. By then, she plans to move the school from the large classroom it now occupies into the church's sanctuary.

"We're going to remodel the sanctuary," she said on the first day of school. "We want a state-of-the-art facility for the children."

She envisions Esther's School, which will offer classes from kindergarten through 12th grade, educating "high performing Down's syndrome and special needs and learning disabled children."

"I'm very excited that we offer an excellent education that is faith-based," she said.

The religious component is so important to her son's education that last school year Berry devoted a great part of her day to driving him back and forth from their Clearwater home to a Christian school in Bradenton. That came to a halt when the school moved to Sarasota. Bobby, who has attended public and private schools, is the youngest of Berry's five children.

Esther's School is not the first project she has undertaken. She has worked as a missionary in the United States and in other countries including Russia, Israel, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Belize. In Belize, Berry said, she saw special needs children begging on the streets.

The Rev. Glenn G. Miller, senior pastor at Solid Rock Christian Ministries, where Esther's School is located, praised Berry for her compassion for those with special needs.

"She actually ministers with empathy rather than sympathy," he said.

Berry, who moved to this country from Scotland after marrying an American 37 years ago, said she wants the students at her school to grow up to live independent lives. Her school's motto is "Exceptional Education for Exceptional Students."

Kathy Moss-Brandenburg, Christian's mother, said she is impressed with Berry's vision.

"For the very first time, I heard somebody affirm the goals that I wanted for me and my child," Moss-Brandenburg said. "The fact that she said that she wanted Christian to reach his fullest potential - I had never heard that in all of his educational career."

As they waited for the school's first two students to arrive recently, principal Rus Cooper-Dowda and aide Jeraline Warren added finishing touches to a large classroom. Cooper-Dowda, who is trained in exceptional education, spoke of her plans to incorporate her students' interests into their classes.

That pleases Christian's mother.

"They want to take his talents and abilities and his interests to reach him," she said. "He creates robots, and he puts parts together. He is just very interested in science and building."

At his previous schools, Moss-Brandenburg said, "It was, "Leave your toys at home.' For him, they are tools. He doesn't view them as toys."

Christian's mother said she is also pleased with the school's plan to maintain a low student-teacher ratio.

"I'm thrilled. This is the first time he has received undivided attention," she said.

Miller of Solid Rock Christian Ministries, where the congregation is made up of recovering alcoholics, addicts, the homeless and working poor, said he was happy to offer the school a place on church property.

"I believe that we can reach some people, who I believe would not be reached, with compassion and caring," he said. "Our ministry is one that has been called to minister to society's throwaways."

He said he is not discouraged by the school's slow beginning.

"We know that it is something that we are supposed to do and that we should build it first, so they will come," he said.

[Last modified August 17, 2005, 01:09:16]