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Letter to the editor

New school will cater to a range of needs

A mom starts a school that will help gifted and challenged kids.

By EMILY NIPPS Times Staff Writer
Published September 7, 2007

HUNTER'S GREEN 

Christy Raile has a deaf 3-year-old son. She also has a 5-year-old daughter who reads at a third-grade level but is too young to start kindergarten.

After moving from California to New Tampa's Hunter's Green two years ago, she began to worry when she looked into schools for her kids.

How would the mother of three run her independent anesthesia practice and care for a toddler, while shuttling her son to his various daily therapies and her daughter to more "typical child" schools and activities?

Sending the 3-year-old to St. Augustine's Florida School for the Deaf and Blind wasn't an option, nor was letting him get on a bus to a special school in Ybor City every day. She had to come up with a solution.

"I figured I already do school at home," Raile, 34, said. "Why not just build one? If I'm doing it anyway, why not help other parents and children as well?"

This was her dream 16 months ago: a school that tailors to each child's needs, whether it's working with some type of disability or nurturing a gift for reading or math. Through the therapy world, she met too many Tampa parents who struggled to help a special-needs child while keeping their other children from being ignored.

So Raile, who has a master's degree in nursing, set out to create a school that would bring in therapists and specialists to cater to children's needs so parents won't have to worry about driving from therapy to therapy after school.

She didn't let the high attorney fees, necessary for applying for the school's nonprofit status, discourage her. Getting certification for a small private school, she said, is surprisingly easy.

Nor did she give up after she heard a landlord was selling a New Tampa school site that she had her heart set on.

When she found out her husband had Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer requiring months of chemotherapy and radiation, the first thing he said was, "You can't stop the school."

Last month, Raile set up a table and some folding chairs at CrossRoads Community Church on County Line Road, the site of the new HALO Academy (Hope, Achieve, Learn, Overcome).

The church is letting her use two of its classrooms, so HALO's two teachers spent the day decorating and preparing for up to 16 children, kindergarten through second grade. It is also offering preschool classes to children 3 and up. Tuition starts at $7,800 a year, with costs of specialists and therapists determined on a per-child basis.

The school accepts McKay Scholarships for students with disabilities.

Raile hopes to interview and enroll at least five children before opening the school year. Her next goal is to build the school to about 14 children, then open its own facility next year and continue growing from there.

"I see big dreams," Raile said, waiting patiently for the first parent to walk through the church's doors. "Today, it doesn't seem so big. But it will happen."

Emily Nipps can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or nipps@sptimes.com.

If you go

The HALO Academy

The academy is holding open registration Saturday from 9 a.m.-noon at CrossRoads Community Church, 26211 County Line Road.

Information: Call (813) 907-0626 or send e-mail to info@haloacademy.com.

[Last modified September 6, 2007, 07:45:27]