Julie Billiart Schools Featured in Westlake Neighbors Magazine

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Julie Billiart Schools are honored to be featured in the November 2020 issue of Westlake Neighbors Magazine. The magazine spoke with us about opening a new school on the West Side of Cleveland and the many services we'll be able to offer West Side families. The magazine is distributed in print to households in Westlake, Ohio.

Article

With a new campus opening in Westlake next fall, we wanted to learn more about Julie Billiart Schools.

How did Julie Billiart School begin?

Julie Billiart Schools (JB) has a long history of educating and empowering kids with learning differences. In fact, it’s the exact reason JB began back in 1954. We started as just one school, which is now known as Julie Billiart School Lyndhurst. In the 1950s, the Sisters of Notre Dame saw a need in the community. At that time, children with learning differences were often considered “lost causes”, or too difficult for the existing schools to work with. The Sisters, out of an abundance of love, acceptance, and belonging, started Julie Billiart School on Ansel Road in Cleveland.

Opening its doors to 14 junior high students on September 8, 1954, JB quickly outgrew the original school and relocated in 1958 to the Arter Mansion on Clubside Road in Lyndhurst. The Arter Mansion is still home to JB Lyndhurst today. As time passed, JB grew to serve more students, hire more faculty and staff, and send more young men and women into the world prepared for self-advocacy and lifelong learning. The Arter Mansion underwent many renovations and expansions to allow more children to receive JB’s life-changing education.

How did Julie Billiart School become Julie Billiart Schools?

Recent statistics show that 25,000 students are on IEPs in Ohio. Children on IEPs need and deserve an education that is designed to help them succeed. Unfortunately, many schools don’t have the resources to customize their education and programming for these kids. Recognizing this, our President, Lannie Davis-Frecker, and JB’s Board of Directors enacted strategic plans to grow and serve more families throughout Northeast Ohio.

After careful planning and collaboration with the community, Julie Billiart Schools opened its first expansion school in Akron, Ohio in the 2017-2018 academic year. In 2020, JB celebrated its first graduate from JB Akron. As enrollment at our Akron school continued to climb, we purchased a building in Westlake, Ohio. JB Westlake, our third school, will open to grades K-4 in August of 2021. The following year, JB Westlake will open to grade 8.

Every single child that has passed through Julie Billiart Schools is part of our history. While they learn from us, we also learn from them. They are the reason for our continued growth and are the impetus for the many improvements we make to our schools each year. Our history not only defines us, but propels us forward.

How does JB impact children and families?

On a daily basis, JB’s incredible educators instill confidence in our kids. They teach JB children to advocate for their own needs. Our kids not only receive an award-winning education and onsite speech, occupational, music, and art therapies, as well as access to onsite Board Certified Behavior Analysts, but they also receive the same love, acceptance, and belonging that the Sisters of Notre Dame instilled so many years ago. Parents of JB kids say that their kids come home from school and talk about their days. They’re excited about their school. They make friends. They learn about themselves and about the importance of kindness.

On a yearly basis, JB measures the growth and success of kids - not against other children, but against their academic, social, and emotional growth from the previous year. It is the mission of our educators to help our kids grow beyond education and beyond expectations. Our kids become doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Others become community members and volunteers, parents, and service providers. Each child is different. So, too, is their education. So, too, is their path to success.

How do you ensure the same education at all schools?

It’s so important that we grow slowly and thoughtfully and that we never compromise the integrity of our model. It’s by keeping our mission and our core values in mind that we’re able to ensure the same education at all schools. Each new school is painstakingly planned to ensure that the students and their families will benefit from the same culture and services that have made our students so successful since the beginning.

A JB education includes highly qualified faculty and staff, onsite therapies, individualized education, assistive technology, and, most importantly, “the JB Way”. Our culture, what we often call the “JB Way” is who we are. It's what we do. It's how we do it. It's the combined qualities, characteristics, and attributes demonstrated by the Notre Dame educators and the charism of St. Julie Billiart that set us apart from other learning environments. The JB Way is our core, our strength, and our reminder of how ALL children have the potential to be happy, successful students.

What have been the greatest challenges of expanding?

Honestly, nothing is too great a challenge when we keep our mission and our KIDS at the center of our growth. We have an incredible Board of Directors and Growth Committee that helps guide our decision making. The toughest parts often come down to logistics - finding the right building that will suit our kids while making sure we’re always aligned with our families, the Sisters of Notre Dame, our Board, our generous donors, and the community we’re entering. Again, we see these as opportunities rather than challenges.

How are you handling the new reality of hybrid learning?

In the spring of 2020, like all schools and businesses, we were tossed into a sea of change as we quickly responded to a state-mandated school shutdown. From that experience, we learned how resilient and how flexible our faculty, staff, students, and families can be.

We are committed to providing the best education for children with learning differences - regardless of the format. We are currently offering an in-person format and a virtual format to our kids and families. Our teachers have been absolutely remarkable, and our kids have adapted incredibly well.

Our teams meet regularly to enact new policies and procedures that will keep our community safe and uphold our mission of educating and empowering kids with learning differences.

Plans for the future?

Well, we’re opening our third school in 2021, right here in Westlake! The campus is already brimming with excitement and movement. We’re currently holding Interested Parent Open Houses and accepting applications. We would love to meet any family or individual who wants to learn more about JB Westlake.