America Deserves A Raise

Teresa grew up in a mill village.  In her day, no one on the mill village aspired to a higher education, much less a little girl with an undiagnosed learning disability who was unable to read and write like the other children.  At 16 Teresa dropped out of school and went to work in the mill.  Thanks to the persistence and encouragement of one family member and one of her teachers, Teresa eventually returned to school, earned her high school diploma, and later a BA in Special Education, Masters of Education, and was National Board Certified in 2003.

Teresa taught special education in the public school system for a number of years.  Teresa recognized the need to reach and serve these children at an earlier age.  During this time she began to dream of a better way to educate children with special needs.  In 2004 she put together a core group of individuals including teachers, nurses, therapists, and parents of children with special needs.  Their mission -  to develop a private, non-profit school for children with special needs - one that would begin serving students at the age of 12 months and which offered an education tailored to meet their specific, individual needs in a setting where both education and therapies would be provided.  In 2006 Teresa opened SOAR Academy and began serving children with special needs from three counties.  Receiving over one million dollars in local and federal grant monies, Teresa clearly had the support of a community that recognized the desperate need for early intervention services for its children with special needs.  Teresa’s love and compassion for this population was evident in the personal sacrifices she made in founding SOAR.  She gave up all of her state benefits, including health insurance, retirement benefits, and her National Board stipend.  She took a considerable cut in pay in order to be the Executive Director of SOAR .  Now in our 4th school year, students are SOARing beyond all expectations.
At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school term, in the throws of the worst recession this county has seen in many years,  SOAR Academy was faced with difficult financial decisions.  As is so common for her, Teresa led the way by slashing her annual salary to one third of what she could be making in the public sector as a classroom teacher.  She also gave up the meager health insurance assistance SOAR had been giving her.  At the same time, she asked her staff to take 20% voluntary reductions in pay so that SOAR Academy could remain open for students.  Not one staff member refused. Teresa has been able to take a dream for the least of our community and give it wings to SOAR.  Teresa deserves a raise for her sacrifice and dedication to the children of our community who must face the challenges of living with special needs each day.  Teresa has made their life so much better through personal sacrifice and an uncommon love and devotion to children.