At The Joy School, a little attention goes a long way
Each workday, Meredith Kaylor sits in soul-crushing traffic for a two-hour roundtrip from her house in The Woodlands to her job in Houston’s museum district. It is then the voices of all those who tell her she is nuts ricochet in her head. Why not find something closer to home?
But she says she wouldn’t trade her job at The Joy School for all the world — or a shorter commute.
The speech pathologist at the private school for students with learning disabilities – they prefer to call them “differences” – says it is the warmth and welcoming mission for both teachers and students that first captured her and keeps her there.
“I just get to do speech therapy all day long,” she says, “I don’t have to ask for permission to give services to kids who need them. I just get to do it.”
Her enthusiasm and that of the other employees at the 150-student, K-8 school, helped propel The Joy School to a spot on the Top Workplace list in the small company category for the fifth year in a row.
The Joy School, tucked amid the high-rise condos and bustle of the city, is the brainchild of founder Shara Bumgarner, now head of school. She started it in 1997 with just four students. At the time, she was a public school teacher who had become frustrated by the cracks that kids kept falling through.
While there seemed to be programs for those with intense needs, there was nothing for children who might just need attention and personalized lessons to get back on track and blossom.
“Why would we make them fail instead of helping them to not fail?” she asked herself.
The school — with only a handful of students in each classroom — is pricey at $40,000 a year. But Bumgarner says 10 percent of the school’s overall budget, or roughly $600,000, is set aside for financial aid. And, perhaps most significant, enrollment is not meant to last long. The goal is to guide students as quickly as possible back to traditional schools.
“They need to have their confidence built back up,” said Kaylor, who thinks the model at the school is a pure form of teaching.
Julia Troche, a first-grade teacher, said she truly knows her students and what they need.
“I come to work every day,” said Troche, “and I’m excited to be here.”