SSD CTE DREAM Academy

. is so grateful for the scholars, staff, families, and friends who continue to live the vision of . What do you feel grateful for this year?

We are so grateful for our staff, scholars, families, and friends during the holiday season and all year long. Thank you for living the vision of . Please feel free to share what you feel grateful for this year.

Memo from Superintendent Garrett III

Under my guidance, the Special School District leadership has been closely following events and public health recommendations surrounding the outbreak and spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We have been busy planning and preparing for the need to provide our residential and local students and their families with safe and reassuring policies and practices. Out of concern for the health and safety of our students, staff, and parents, the SSD Crisis Management team has closed the campus from Friday, March 13, at 8:00 a.m. until at least mid-April or whenever we hear of updated guidelines from state and federal authorities.

Questions can be sent to [email protected] or [email protected] or via text at 225-246-3602 or FaceTime me at the same number.

Recently, Dr. Speed represented SSD at the National Deaf Center training for their new cohort of Engage for Change grant awardees. She is a part of the Baton Rouge Core Team along with Lighthouse Louisiana. This grant will allow recipients to host engagement events to discuss transition services, barriers, and solutions for the deaf community. Announcements for event dates will be released soon.

Last spring, one of our L*D students, Gary Watson, showed great leadership in pursuing a Certified Nursing Assistant program for the DREAM Academy. Gary gathered student signatures and set up a meeting to discuss their interest in the program. The DREAM Academy is proud to announce that this semester we have launched our CNA program!!!

We are so excited to explore technologies to support our Deaf and VI students in this field and we look forward to developing partnerships to support our students' success!!!

On January 17th, the DREAM Academy was able to spend time with the DeafBlind Interagency team that met on campus. The ProStart students served lunch and later a tour was given to the team members. The DREAM Academy is looking forward to the new partnerships made during this meeting. More info to come soon...

Superintendent Ernest E. Garrett III delivers an awesome message for January.

Special School District Newsletter Message, January 2020

Friday was an amazing day!!! Thank you to our College and Career Coach for making the College and Career Fair a success!!!

Our Ribbon Cutting was such an amazing event!!!We are excited about what the future holds for our LSVI and L*D students!!!

Dream Academy Ribbon Cutting This video is about My Movie 16

The D.R.E.A.M. Academy would like to introduce one of our new L*DVI staff whose office is housed in the Academy. We welcome our new College and Career Coach, Ms. Yolanda Collins. She will be working with LSVI and L*D students. Her role will include college and career event planning, internships, assisting students with college and career planning, all to support student transition services upon graduation. Ms. Collins is a CODA, and her family is a part of the local deaf community. She has a wealth of experience in the field of education and is a great addition to the L*DVI team!!! Please welcome our new team member!!!

We had a great time showing Superintendent White our CTE D.R.E.A.M. Academy wing and our graphic design class in action!