Permian High School special education teacher Leondra Holman wants her students to be the best they can be.
To that end, she has been awarded two grants from the Education Foundation. Sensational Sensory Room and Beyond for $2,000 and a $1,395.04 award for Skill Building Leads to Independence!
Now in her sixth year at PHS, Holman teaches career prep and speech and health. Veronica Ochoa is her aide.
The Sensational Sensory Room grant is to create a sensory room for all the students on the unit.
“We want to give our students the opportunity for a calm down room, to be able to have a room where they can go and take a break when needed and have a lot of those items that really help our students,” Holman said.
They will receive sensory lights, timers, a galaxy lamp and a fabric sensory pole. Permian doesn’t currently have a sensory room.
One of the other teachers, Ashley Sikora, has a sensory room in her classroom. Her students stay in her classroom.
“All of our teachers … really wanted to have this to be able to offer this to our students. It will be a really good calming area for them,” Holman said.
The skill building grant is for items that will help the students become more independent and help them get ready for jobs.
They will be getting a new paper shredder and a Cricut, which will help them create items for fundraisers, a heat press and a new vacuum cleaner.
“Career prep is where our students get to practice all the independent living skills. We do cooking; we do cleaning; we do school jobs. We do all the shredding for the counseling department here at Permian. We wash the dress code clothes. We stay very busy,” Holman said.
“Our students have a lot of fun. They get to practice those skills that will help them transition to adulthood. They become very good at cooking, washing laundry; all the daily household items,” she added.
Also in career prep, they teach the students how to find a job, interview skills, having a strong work ethic, punctuality, ability to follow directions and time management among other skills.
Holman said she tries to replicate real life job experiences for her students. They got an Education Foundation grant for a coffee cart. Students learned to make coffee last year and Holman hopes to have them sell coffees to staff.
“Anything that we can do here to be able to replicate what the future might look like, or what opportunities, to be able to prepare them for that. That’s what we’re striving for,” she added.
A lot of their students may move on to the Transition Learning Center, so Holman and her colleagues are trying to help students get ready for that as well.
“I’m just kind of a small portion of what they do, and then once they’re there, they can just build on everything that we’ve been working (on) here. They do amazing work over there,” Holman said.
She has received Education Foundation grants previously and is very excited about getting these two.
“I know that it’s going to up so many opportunities for our students that we wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the Education Foundation,” Holman said.
Holman said the Education Foundation has been amazing to work with.
“They are such a gift to ECISD,” she added.
Holman moved to Odessa from Idaho in the summer of 2019. She went to Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in clinical psychology from the same university.
She had never taught before.
“I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Someone suggested applying (to) the school district, so I did. They put me in special education. I didn’t know anything about it, but I’ve loved it. It’s my absolute passion. I love all of our students. I really enjoy all the opportunities that come with it,” Holman said.
PHS Principal Delesa Styles said Holman is to be commended for pursuing the Education Foundation grants each year.
“She is innovative and proactive at providing educational resources and opportunities for PHS’s most vulnerable population, our special education students. This year, she has been selected to serve as PHS’s campus representative for ECISD’s District Improvement Team. We are fortunate to have her at PHS and we are so proud of her!” Styles said.
