Putnam County School Officials joined community leaders Thursday for the ribbon cutting of the new Independence House, an expansion project for special education students.
The house helps teach students with autism and other disabilities life skills, such as grocery shopping, cooking, and washing clothes. Supervisor of Special Education Sheri Roberson said the program helps move students toward independent living.
“We have the best board, we have the best director, they support anything that we want to do,” Roberson said. “I mean, who would have thought that they would have said, yeah, we’re going to build you a house? We are the only, I know of, SPED Department that has a house specifically for our students to learn independence skills.”
Cookeville High Students built the home, with donations from business across the community. School Board Vice Chair Dawn Fry is the mother of an autistic son. She said the program works.
“I am a school board member, but I’m also a parent of a son who is 23 now who has autism,” Fry said. “And he graduated from the Independence Program at Tennessee Tech. And I cannot express to you and without crying, I cannot express to you the difference this program makes for our special education students.”
Fry said her son now lives independently and manages his own grocery shopping and laundry because of the skills learned in the program. Fry said the project allowed CTE students to learn new construction skills while serving the special education department.
“It has made such a difference for him,” Fry said.
Roberson said the program works in partnership with Tennessee Tech, where students audit classes and prepare for full-time employment. She said the building of a home on campus came out multiple discussions after the program housed at Tennessee Tech began turning away students.
“Our students are going to benefit for decades to come because they have a space here on campus,” Director Of Schools Corby King said.
The building has been named the Mansell House in honor of retiring CTE instructor Randy Mansell, who oversaw the student-led construction. King said students worked before school, after school, and on weekends to ensure the house remained on schedule for completion.
King said the school system shifted funds from a former program in Monterey to the Cookeville Career Technical Education program to finance the build. But the community stepped up and covered much of the cost.
Incoming teacher Demetria Pace received the keys to the house, which will serve as her classroom for the independence program starting next year.