ELIZABETH MARCELL HAS BUILT A SCHOOL TO SERVE NEW ORLEANS' 'MOST COMPLICATED' KIDS.
Some students need more intensive help than a regular school can provide. That's why Liz Marcell and her colleagues developed the Therapeutic Day Program, a small school in the Faubourg Marigny that serves students with the most severe behavioral health disabilities.
Marcell serves as executive director for the school, which is a collaboration between the Recovery School District, Orleans Parish School Board and Tulane Medical School's Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The program opened in September and has served 17 students thus far.
Marcell, a 38-year-old Central City resident originally from upstate New York, came to New Orleans in 2002 with Teach For America. She left in August 2005 to pursue a doctorate, but found herself drawn to return to Louisiana. After serving as special education director for ReNEW charter schools, she was named executive director of the new therapeutic day program, and spent a year researching and planning the school before its launch.
WHY: "We're talking about kids who have medical needs, mental health needs that even the best-resourced schools with the most experienced staff are not equipped to support. We have such a lack of diversity of mental health services. Beyond either getting services in school, or being connected to a community-based counselor, there are not more intensive services. The most satisfaction that I get out of the work is feeling like we are moving toward a true mental health continuum for children in the city."
WHO: "Their profile is pretty similar on paper. By and large, we see kids who've experienced different traumas, stresses, exposures to violence that have impacted their ability to develop healthy and trusting relationships. That manifests itself for many of our kids with a lot of physical aggression."
HOW: "We have the philosophy that children do well if they can. We're a non-punitive, intentionally warm, caring environment. When there are behavioral issues that come up, or things that damage the community, our approach is have the children figure out how to make it right."
SUPPORT: "The day-to-day work is really hard. So we do a lot of celebrating every single day as a team. We start our meetings with what went well today, and we end them with team shout-outs. Those moments are really gratifying."
NEED: "My background is in promoting more inclusive practices, wanting to see kids with disabilities in general education classrooms. But the more time that I spend in this work, the more I realize there is a small population of kids who are not successful, and that's not the best environment for them."
PATH: "When I joined Teach For America, I was assigned to be an art teacher and moved to south Texas. The program director said 'I don't quite know how this happened, but there aren't any art teaching positions here. Would you consider special education?' I thought, 'Well, I came to do this work, to serve whoever is needed. If that's where the need is, then I'll do it.'"
ALTERNATIVE: "My intent was to be an Italian professor. When I completed my commitment to Teach For America I started a doctoral program in Italian language and literature, and was really surprised to find that as much as it was aesthetically beautiful, that work wasn't fulfilling anymore. I felt like I had had a window into what feels often like an intractable problem, which is quality education for all. I wasn't contributing by being an Italian doctoral student."
MODEL: "My mother built both of the houses that I grew up in by hand. She was a mechanical drawing teacher and an artist, and she had done some home renovation work before. When she couldn't pay rent, we moved to Maine and we lived in a tent for a summer. She went to the Shelter Institute, where you learn how to build energy-efficient, passive solar homes, and that's what she did. I learned two things from her: One is as that as a human being, and particularly as a woman, you really can do anything you set your mind to. And when you undertake a massive project, you have to think about the next day, not the end result."
RETURN: "Does anyone ever know how New Orleans sucks them in? Having Katrina happen so soon after I left just gave me a realization about how much I loved the city. Then, doing research on the post-Katrina educational landscape and what that meant for children with disabilities, professionally, I wanted to be back here. I did my graduate work in Boston and I thought it would feel like moving home and it ended up being such a culture clash. I just missed it, so I moved back. It's clearly not for everyone, but once you have lived here and loved it, it's hard to go anywhere else."
Liz Marcell is the executive director of the New Orleans Therapeutic Day Program, which serves New Orleans children with severe behavioral disabilities, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Ted Jackson, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune) PEACE: "I'm a horseback rider. I'm terrified of letting anybody down, which is why team sports were way too stressful for me. But if I'm on a horse, I'm out there on my own, yet you have to be in sync. You have to be thinking about the animal that you're working with. There's a meditative and a present quality."
MEAL: "Steamed clams, lobster, made at home in Maine with a good margarita."
REINCARNATION: "I would love a chance to do this over again. I had a couple big life lessons, and I'd love the opportunity to try it again as a person."
HAPPINESS: "Personally: the beach, a good book and some quiet. Professionally: A combination of true quantitative results that demonstrate progress, coupled with a team that feels valued and is invested in the work that they're doing."
BIG PICTURE: "Public education has existed for almost 400 years in the U.S., and special education has been an entity for 40. These are the most complicated kids that are out there, so we have a lot of work to do, and a lot of learning. That challenge is inspiring to me."
SHOUT-OUT: From longtime friend Rebecca Millsap. "She's really dedicated to all the work that she does with the children of New Orleans. She's very professional and always kind to everyone that she works with."
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
- Learn more about the Therapeutic Day Program.