OPS’s JP Lord School, which serves students age 5 through 21 with severe physical and cognitive challenges, will celebrate the groundbreaking for a new building at 9:00 on Friday, September 30th.
After many years on the UNMC campus, their new 162,000 square foot building will be located at 4444 Marinda Street, just north of OPS’s Norris Middle School, and is scheduled for completion in time for the 2018 school year.
Laura Mac-Holmes, the Program Director for JP Lord School, says the school will be a one-of-a-kind and national model, with many features that will make it easier to meet the special needs of their students:
“We are going to have Hoyer lifts in each classroom, so we will be able to move some of our older students just with a Hoyer lift and not a two-person lift; we have had a donation of 375,000 from the Omaha Volunteers for Handicapped Children, and they are going to put in an 8 foot by 12 foot therapy pool; as well as our sensory gym and an auditorium.”
Mac-Holmes says there will also be a medical station for their nurses outside every two classrooms since the medical component is a large part of JP Lord School. She says the OPS Special Education office has already been contacted by one family in Texas who is considering moving to Omaha specifically so their child can attend this new school.
For more information, the website is JPLord.ops.org