Building friendships with gingerbread

Published 5:17 pm Friday, April 25, 2008

By STEVE DEDUAL

For the Patriot

Gingerbread houses provided the perfect platform for building friendships as the preschools at Naval Avenue Early Learning Center got together for the holidays on Thursday morning.

The Bremerton School District program, which integrates special education students with Head Start students, is the only one of its kind in Kitsap County, said instructional coach Donna Gearns.

“There is a similar program in South Kitsap where there is some blending, but not to this extent,” Gearns said.

The school’s special education department has been teamed up with the head-start program for about seven years now, said Katrina Jones, Naval Avenue’s special educator.

Jones said that the two groups learn from one another.

“The special education children learn to follow directions by watching the head start children,” Jones said, “And the head-start children learn patience and tolerance from the experience of being around the special education students.”

Jones said the program here in Bremerton is one-of-a-kind and she is happy to be a part of it.

“I am so proud of Bremerton for creating a program like this,” she said.