Dyslexic, learning disabled focus of charter school

The Maxine Giardina Charter School is partnering with Nicholls State University to help children diagnosed with learning disorders achieve their full academic potential.

The partnership comes as no surprise. For more than 10 years, members of the Giardina Family Foundation have volunteered at Nicholls’ Louisiana Center for Dyslexia and Related Learning Disorders in an effort to raise awareness about dyslexia and other learning disorders.

According to Karen Chauvin, the center’s director, Nicholls has the only dyslexia-related program in the state.

The Giardina Family Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on the needs of people with dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and/or similar learning disorders.

Local businessman Jake Giardina and his wife Maxine founded the organization in 1997. The couple has two children who are dyslexic.

Over the past eight years, Chauvin said the foundation has held hundreds of workshops on the Nicholls campus aimed at improving educators’ ability to recognize dyslexia and other learning disorders in today’s youth.

According to the foundation’s coordinator, Diane Savoie, the group has been instrumental in training more than 4,000 teachers from southern states in numerous multi-sensory techniques designed to help students develop basic learning skills.

“The charter school is a natural fit. What better place for a dyslexia center than on a [university] campus that agrees that we need to make the public aware of the problems that come with dyslexia and how to correct them,” Giardina said.

A lasting tribute, the school is named after Giardina’s wife, who died six years ago. “Maxine dedicated her life to helping children with dyslexia. She founded the Dyslexia Society for South Louisiana, which is one of the most powerful groups in the state,” Savoie said.

Maxine Giarina also served as a member of the Louisiana Branch of the International Dyslexia Association.

“Maxine worked with the local legislature for years making sure that children with dyslexia aren’t forgotten. The decision to name the school after her was a unanimous decision made by the [foundation’s] nine-panel board,” Savoie added.

Chauvin said the charter school is a Type 2 facility that will operate under an agreement with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“This makes us an independent school district where parents have to enroll their children. We do a series of aptitude tests for each applicant to determine admission into the school,” she said.

The school is slated to open in August and will enroll up to 100 area students in the first through eighth grades. Open student enrollment will be held May 14 through June 29.

Registration is open to residents in Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption, St. Charles, St. Mary, Ascension, St. James and St. John parishes.

In the meantime, the charter school board is accepting application for teachers.

“The number of instructors hired is based on the ratio of students enrolled,” Chauvin said, noting that the exact number of job openings will not be known until the end of June.

Both Chauvin and Savoie are hopeful the charter school will eventually serve as a learning module for Nicholls’ education majors. University students will have the opportunity to learn firsthand how to recognize dyslexia and other learning disorders before they begin their teaching career, the two explained.

And Chauvin has high hopes that other charter schools will follow the Maxine Giardina Charter School’s lead and try to make a difference in the educational lives of students too often tossed by the wayside because they learn differently.

“At some point in time we will have to work with other school systems when we have to screen children for dyslexia. We hope that the educators will be able to recognize that those children need our help,” said Cleveland Hill, a foundation board member and former Nicholls College of Education dean.

Applications to the charter school can be accessed at Nicholls’ Web site under the Louisiana Center Dyslexia and Related Learning Disorders, or by calling Chauvin at (985) 448-4897.