By Anne Spencer

Published: May 9, 2008

Life just keeps getting better at Hope School where the students learn to help themselves and others when they can.

A food service facility is being constructed next door, with it also to serve as a P.E. pavilion.

In the cafeteria will be Hope School’s first kitchen, and when the building is finished, meals won’t have to be trucked in. A dedication will be held this summer.
A wide ramp for wheelchairs leads to the doors. Students will have special table-and-chair accommodations.

“It’s basically finished except for the flooring,” Assistant Principal Yvonne Melzer said this week. “The furniture is here and in storage. They have to put up a fence and we’ll put picnic tables out in front.”

Anderson Construction Co., Fort Gaines, Ga., is the contractor.

A new program began this year at Hope with a $7,000 grant. The students are growing plants and keeping them fresh and green at the entrance to the school.
They’re also sharing them with retirees at Chipola Apartments and traveling there twice a week to water the plants.

While on the premises, if a retiree requests, the students help clean apartments.

The students welcomed spring this year by creating a bulletin board with the theme “April showers bring imaginary flowers.” Holding scissors and cutting paper for them is a feat.

Hope School has 110 students who are mentally handicapped and may also be autistic, visually impaired, hearing impaired, or physically impaired. Hope also has a program for behavior therapy.