news-record.com

For Haynes-Inman Education Center students and parents, the new school offers a closer-to-home version of Gateway Education Center.

Like the students, most of the Haynes-Inman staff came from Gateway, Principal Kevin Carr said.

“It really has been a pretty smooth transition,” parent Lisa Newman said.

Newman said seeing familiar faces has helped her 13-year-old son, Matthew, adjust.

Although he doesn’t have the same teachers, Matthew, who has a rare chromosome deletion, has the same classmates and sees the same teachers in the halls that he did at Gateway.

Carr said the staff plans to keep the same traditions students had at Gateway.

“Every school is going to have its own personality, and we’re growing into that,” Carr said. But staff plans to continue proms, star student programs, dances and other activities.

Parents like the proximity and layout of the school.

“They have a lot of room in the classrooms,” Newman said. “There’s a lot of space for my son to get around in the room in his wheelchair and walker.”

“It’s nice to know children with complex health needs ... have a place they can go to and feel comfortable and parents have a place they feel comfortable with their kids being there,” said Monica McGuire, whose 4-year-old son, Connor, attends Haynes-Inman.

The shorter commute is a big relief, too.

McGuire said she had to drive 30 minutes one way to drop off and pick up Connor at Gateway.

Connor has a rare epilepsy disorder that causes him to convulse several times a day. If he has a particularly bad episode, McGuire is called to pick him up.

“Thirty minutes seems like two hours when your child is concerned,” she said.

Knowing it will not take long to get to him in an emergency is comforting, she said.

In recent years, Matthew rode a bus to Gateway.

“When he started riding the bus, he would get on at 7 or 7:30 a.m.,” Newman said. He wouldn’t get home until 3:50 or 4:50.

This created some challenges, such as making sure Matthew got his fluids in a timely manner.

He was also tired after long days.

“It was not uncommon for him to come home and fall asleep,” Newman said.

These days, Matthew is picked up about 8:20 a.m. and gets home at 2:30 or 3 p.m.

“Now, we’re seeing he has more energy and walking at night,” his mom said.

Newman said she hopes to have more of a presence at the school.

“Gateway has always offered social times for parents,” she said. “I hope to make it to those.”

She also said Gateway’s parent-teacher organization was active, and she hopes the program that forms at Haynes-Inman will be just as involved.

Susan Haynes retired from High Point Bank to work at the school. The land for the school was owned by her father-in-law, Thurman Haynes, and the school is named, in part, after her daughter, Meredith.

“I wanted to be with the school. I wanted to have some part ... of the opening of the school,” she said. “It’s almost like a dream come true.”

Meredith Haynes, who had tuberous sclerosis, attended Gateway. She died at age 20 in 1993.

Haynes is happy to be at the school and have the opportunity to work with special needs children.

“It’s like it’s meant to be,” Haynes said. “It’s like Meredith was given to us as a special-needs child knowing this property would be used for special- needs children.”

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com