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Great Day at Marimor School

Lima News - 8/25/2021

Aug. 26—LIMA — Great Day Academy and the Marimor School, each of which educate children with autism and severe developmental disabilities, have merged to form the Great Day at Marimor school.

The school is the result of months of negotiations between the Allen CountyBoard of Developmental Disabilities and the Allen County Educational Service Center (ESC), which will remain separate entities as they split financial and teaching responsibilities for their combined Great Day at Marimor, 2550 Ada Road.

Talks started in March, as the ESC sought a new location for its autism units, previously known as Great Day Academy on Slabtown Road.

The academy lacked an on-site cafeteria after converting its lunchroom into a classroom to keep pace with growing enrollment. Students were walking across the parking lot for lunch and recess, a challenge for students with mobility issues.

Enrollment at the Marimor school, meanwhile, had dwindled to about a dozen students with the most intense medical and behavioral needs, as most children with developmental disabilities now attend school in their home school districts or other academies tailored to specific needs.

"Most kids should be in the public schools," said Theresa Schnipke, superintendent of the Allen CountyBoard of Developmental Disabilities. "Most kids should be with their siblings."

The agencies have offered a joint pre-school program since 2009.

The Great Day at Marimor, open to children entering kindergarten through age 22, will operate in a similar fashion: The Board of Developmental Disabilities will cover facility, maintenance and ancillary costs, like behavioral support and case management, while the ESC will be responsible for educational services. School districts sending children to Great Day at Marimor will not pay fees during the pilot year.

Students who previously attended the makeshift autism school will now have access to larger classrooms equipped with handicap-accessible bathrooms and changing stations. They won't have to walk across the parking lot for lunch or gym class. And soon, they'll even have an inclusive playground located right outside their classroom door.

The merger should save the Board of Developmental Disabilities about $1 million per year, as the agency was able to eliminate six teaching and administrative positions, several of whom retired or were hired by the ESC to continue teaching at Great Day. The $5.4 million in levy funding the Board of Developmental Disabilities receives will instead support other expenses like facility costs and operating needs.

The Marimor school was founded by parents of children with developmental disabilities, who had few educational opportunities when taxpayers approved the first levy to fund the school in 1977.

But the Board of Developmental Disabilities has shifted its resources, which now supports adult day services at Marimor Industries as well as other Medicaid-waiver programs offered by private group homes, employment agencies and organizations assisting people with disabilities. It also employs early intervention specialists who work with infants and toddlers experiencing developmental delays.

"Medicaid waivers didn't exist in 1977," Schnipke said. What the agency once used to support a school of 100 children now supports adults living in group homes as their parents age, Schnipke said.

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