On Saturday, April 20th, four Gateway students participated at the Special Olympics Power Lifting regional event in Flemington, New Jersey. Then on Saturday, April 27th, ten Gateway students participated at the Special Olympics Bocce regional event in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. All of our student athletes did very well with most of them qualifying for the state games this June. The 2013 Summer games will take place June 7 thru 9 at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. More than 2,300 athletes from across the state will compete in Aquatics, Bocce, Gymnastics, Power lifting, Softball, Tennis, and Track & Field. Many Gateway School athletes will be participating in this overnight event. Best of luck to all of our athletes who are participating. Bring home the gold! Go Gators!!

On Thursday, May 9th from 6:30p.m. to 8:30p.m. Bobbie Gallagher returns to Gateway School to present part two of her workshop “Managing Problem Behavior.” The workshop is sponsored by Parents of Autistic Children (POAC). Workshop participants will learn how to identify the functions of different behaviors and implement the appropriate protocols to decrease them. Bobbie has worked in the field of autism since 1997 and has two children on the autism spectrum. For more information, please contact the main office.

On Thursday, May 23, 2013 Gateway School will be making its way over to Harbor School in Eatontown, NJ for the annual RKS Baseball Tournament. Teams from Gateway, Harbor and Alpha schools will compete in this one day tournament to decide supremacy on the ball field. I’m sure a great time will be had by all.

Please set aside Wednesday, June 12th on your calendar for the 2013 Gateway School Spring Show and Graduation Ceremony. Due to the amount of graduates this year, our schedule for the day will be a little bit different than in previous years. Our spring show will begin at 10 a.m. The theme of this year’s show will be Music Icons: Past—Present. Lite refreshments will be served during the show. Then after an extended intermission, our graduation ceremony will begin at approximately 1p.m.

Just a reminder, due to Hurricane Sandy and zero snow days this past winter, the last day of school this year will now be Monday, June 24th. Please adjust your calendars accordingly.

Our ESY Summer Program will begin on Monday, July 8th and end on Friday, August 16th. If you are not joining us for the extended school year, Have a Great Summer!

Now that Spring is here we are enjoying the warm weather after the winter that hardly was. We used absolutely no Snow Days this winter meaning the last day of school for students will be on Friday, June 15th.

There are several exciting events coming up in the next few weeks for our students. For example we are holding our semi-annual Talent Show (our Gateway Idol!) on Tuesday, March 27th.

Also later on that week, on Wednesday, March 28th Gateway is holding a Transition Fair for parents and their son and daughters, as well as professionals in the Special Education community. We have literally dozens of agencies coming to share information about the crucial transition from school to adult life. Part of our mission is to bring information and resources to our families in order to prepare them for the challenges that lie ahead.

Ms. Uddin’s class took a Community-Based Instruction trip to Wegman’s in Woodbridge to explore the market and get a tour of the various departments. They utilized the school vans to make the short trip to the market and the entire activity lasted about 2 ½ hours. Another group of students has planned to go out on Friday, March 23rd to take a Community-Based Instruction trip to Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick, NJ. One of the OTs – Fran Sobon – has designed an activity that has students preparing bag lunches and donating them to this worthwhile community organization. We received more good news this past week when we found out that the RKS Annual School prom that is typically held at Harbor School in Eatontown will be sponsored by our friends from Holiday Express! All three schools – Gateway, Harbor & Alpha – have been invited to Gibbs Hall (on the grounds of the old Fort Monmouth) to hold our prom in high style. Music and food and fun will once again be sponsored by all the wonderful volunteers under the awe-inspiring humanitarian Tim McLoone. Needless to say the students (and staff) our looking forward to what I am sure will be a magical day.

Pat Gutowski is currently our SLE (Structured Learning Experience) and Transition Coordinator whose primary focus is preparing our adolescent and young adult students to make the adjustment from school programs to adult services. Ms. “G”, as she is affectionately known by her students, is entering her 25th year here at Gateway School, having first started teaching here in 1987.

Initially Ms. Gutowski was in the classroom as a Teacher of the Handicapped working with students of all ages. Later she began to concentrate on the high school classes, and in the early ‘90’s we started talking about making important new changes in the school curriculum, such as implementing more community-based instruction, developing work sites outside of school where the students could learn real work skills, and conducting situational vocational assessments. Enthusiastic about the new direction, Ms. Gutowski changed her role from Teacher to Transition Coordinator. She began to investigate what does actually happen to our students after they graduate from Gateway. She started to learn more about the adult service system and sought out active participation from DDD case managers and DVR counselors to develop comprehensive transition plans for our young adults and those ready to graduate. She began networking with professionals and quickly developed good working relationships with other Transition Coordinators throughout the county and eventually the state.

Ms. Gutowski started using vocational interest inventories to determine students’ own interests, and with the input of teachers and family members, developed positive student profiles to focus on students’ strengths, especially in terms of their work skills and job behaviors. She began purchasing age-appropriate materials to teach students these skills so critical to future success in adult environments. She began reaching out to employers in the area to find work sites where our students could perform job shadowing in real work environments. Soon she had developed a comprehensive program to teach our students the value of work, both in school and in community-based locations.

She began working closely with our high school teachers, coaching them on the importance of preparing our young adults and adolescents for transition and the world of work. At the beginning of each school year now, Ms. Gutowski in-services the teachers on how to develop transition plans that are meaningful, relevant and pragmatic. She develops in-school work jobs and on a daily basis goes out to the work sites with our employment specialists.

Outside of the school program Ms. Gutowski continued to network with other educational professionals throughout the state and the country. A few years ago she was elected to the national board of APSE (Association for Persons in Supported Employment), and currently, she continues to serve on the NJAPSE Board of Directors. She continues to represent our school and New Jersey every year at the APSE conferences, both at the state and national level. Just recently Ms. Gutowski was asked to participate on a new statewide committee – the New Jersey Employment First Initiative, which believes everyone, even those with disabling conditions, can become employed.

Ms. Gutowski embodies all of the best characteristics of a dedicated educator and human service professional, displaying compassion and a vision of transforming society to a better place in which people of differing abilities are treated with respect and dignity and allowed to reach for the stars. She is a tremendous asset to our program and we are fortunate to have her on our team!