Honoring a special teacher for a special program

FARMINGTON – With just a few days left of a 24-year career at W. G. Mallett School, teacher Mardie Porter summed it up with “it’s all been sweet.”

The veteran teacher of the special education program has over the years forged especially strong ties with the families of her kindergarten through third-grade students. Unlike a traditional classroom teacher, Porter usually has a student in her classroom for four or five years while facing the challenges autism and other often severe disabilities can bring.

She’s provided training for the program that teaches life skills along with academics and worked in most of the classrooms in the building with an inclusion program she’s developed that provides her students time in the other classrooms and third-grade classes time in her Adapted Program classroom.

“She has worked tirelessly to ensure that the Adapted Program kids become part of the fabric of school life,” said Principal Tracy Williams. “She has worked with some teachers to invite students in for sing-alongs around her piano, with kids in the program and establish ‘buddy’ relationships for them with peers. She’s always been able to see the school from the vantage point of a child who may not have the ability to communicate and/or travel about easily.”

It’s because of those close-knit ties over the years with the school’s staff and the students’ families, an open house will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, June 10 at Mallett School to celebrate Porter’s work. Everyone is invited and there will be refreshments and “a nice chance for thank yous and good byes,” Williams said.

“I’m going to miss the kids, miss being here and miss thinking about the kids,” Porter said.

After completing her teaching degree in special education at the University of Maine at Farmington, Porter went to work at Mallett School in 1989 in what started that year as the first separate special education program in the school district.

For Porter’s and the program’s first year, she expected three students but by September, she had five students.

The program was supposed to be a district-wide program but soon found students from other school districts signing up for what was then the only program of its kind. The program at Mallett is for kindergarten through third grade or more depending on what’s best for the student. Then it’s on to Cascade Brook School and finally to Mt. Blue High School towards graduation.

“There are a lot more kids now; it’s busting at the seams,” Porter said of the program today. There will be eight or nine students next year in the program, while currently there are six. These students require the one-on-one supervision of an ed tech.

Over the years other things have changed in that children are often diagnosed earlier, but the services aren’t necessarily there, Porter noted. There’s a lot more information available these days on children with significant disabilities than there was 20 years ago and with that, professional training has improved.

“The biggest change is that we’re much better at individualized programming,” Porter said of the need to meet the wide variety of specific needs for each student.

Parent Tami Labul said that “sending a special needs child off to kindergarten is a scary and unknown event for both the child and the family. When my son, who has autism, began kindergarten at Mallett in 2005, we were nervous about the transition and how these new teachers and staff would be able to meet his needs. I needn’t have worried. My son’s experience in Mardie Porter’s classroom was so positive. We were very relieved that he had wonderful ed techs but also that Mardie was at the helm of the program and she was on top of any need he might have. Working with Mardie was so comfortable, she had a wealth of information and experience and her calm and kind demeanor made her perfectly suited for her role as a special education teacher.”

When the new Mallett School opened two years ago, Porter’s classroom of 22 years moved from a trailer next to the old building smack into the center of the new building which affords her students a critical inter-connection to the school’s community and easy  access to the school’s library, gym and art room.  Serving on the new building’s design advisory committee, Porter was able to get what the program needs, such as two bathrooms, one large enough for a changing table; a laundry room and a kitchen, separate work stations for a student’s individual instruction, enough storage for the wide variety of the materials teachers need for students, are among the new classroom’s amenities.

“Her perspective was important in the creation of the new school; the old building had not been ADA accessible. She and the program staff and students had experienced so many years out in the portables – separated from the old Mallett School. Even then, she worked so hard to facilitate the flow of kids and staff in and out of the program,” Williams said.

Ian Arsenault, who will be taking over for Porter in the fall, will be stepping into a state-of-the-art facility.

Porter’s biggest challenge in her years as Adapted Program’s lead teacher has come at budget time when cuts over the last years can mean the difference between having enough ed techs for the number of students in the program or not.

The program struggled at one point this year when there were six ed techs budgeted for seven severely disabled students.

“They all require that level of one-on-one care for reasons of  safety, personal hygiene and learning,” Porter said. To make up for the budget cuts over the years, she’s been successfully writing grants to help with classroom expenses, field trips and other activities for her students.

Overall, her classroom work has been rewarding.

“What I always loved about it was the puzzle of the challenges of the disability and trying to figure out how to get that student to do as many things as possible,” Porter said. “It’s to see little glimpses towards maximizing their quality of life.”

The families of her students have been “incredibly supportive,” Porter said. “They get the big picture and are appreciative of the program.”

“In her role, more than many teaching roles, she has really been a mentor to many families. I’ve seen her get choked up over small victories that may have been years in the making. For example, when a student who was non-verbal and learning to used alternative communication used a system device to indicate a simple ‘no’ or ‘yes.’ That could be huge, and Mardie would be shaping it and seeing it happen for the first time as well as celebrating with the family,” Williams said.

“She was so good at looking at each student individually to see how teaching styles could be adapted to meet differing learning styles,” Labul said. “I feel so fortunate that my son had such a strong start at school by being in her program, it was so important to know I could send him to school where he would be cared for, encouraged, challenged, taught and loved by such a gifted teacher.”

At this time of year, Porter receives invitations to her former students’ graduations at Mt. Blue High School.

“Love it, I love seeing the families again,” she said. There are a lot of challenges the families of disabled students need to face after graduation. It’s a discussion Porter starts having with parents at the elementary school level because many of the group home programs have long waiting lists. Or some parents need to think about building an apartment or some have thought about starting a group home.

The district’s special education program requires planning for the graduating senior’s future to begin four years before leaving the high school.

Her retirement plans include travel and later maybe consulting work to help create programs for both individual students and schools.

Her last day of school, Porter said, is a day she’s has been planning for all year. It will be kind of like her own graduation, she said, into a new life.

“Because of Mardie and the Adapted program efforts, our students are likely to grow up with a better understanding of and empathy for people who need extra supports to do the things they can do already do with ease,” Williams said.