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Administrator’s Corner by Sheila Riebe

The Albert Lea Transition Program allows 18-21 year-old students with disabilities an extra opportunity to develop life and job skills while gaining confidence. The program focuses on providing learning opportunities for young adults to build vocational, social and independent living skills. The program also gives students a variety of experiences in the community and through jobs and service projects to discover what interests they have and determine what they might like to do in the future. Students have access to skill-development activities designed to meet their individual needs in the five transition areas listed below:

Jobs and job training

Recreation and leisure

Community participation

Independent living

Post-secondary/post-school planning

The Transition Program is designed to assist students in preparing for success in adult life by focusing on student and team identified transition outcomes. This program is unique in that it focuses on building skills to help transition to life after public school. Students will engage in classroom and community activities that will benefit both the student and the community. The focus for learners will be on growth in independence in living, working and acquiring new skills. High school coursework and curriculum is typically no longer appropriate for supporting student progress on individualized goals.

In the spring of 2022, the program was awarded the Vocational and Life Skills Recovery grant in the amount of $190,000. The project goal for the grant submission was to start a program where the students plan, prep, market and distribute freezer meals to our schools and community. Students will gain valuable vocational and daily living skills while executing this program. Students in the Transition Program need to work to increase their vocational and daily living skills in order to demonstrate a level of independence as adults within their community by gaining and maintaining employment. This program is looking to match those vocational skills with the needs of the community in which they live. The Albert Lea community has a shortage of workers in the leisure and hospitality industries. The grant will award the students with the kitchen facility needed to build on those vocational skills required to meet the needs of the community. The classrooms will be updated with new/additional appliances to achieve their vocational and daily living goals of creating and executing a meal plan service to sell frozen meals to the staff in the district. The grant will also allow the students to establish vocational and life skills that focus on providing all students who participate in the program an opportunity to work together completing the necessary tasks, to accomplish the goal of creating and delivering frozen meals.

The students have been busy this school year creating their business, EO (Experience and Opportunities) Meals. They were trained in OSHA 10 safety, ServSafe or ServSafe Allergens in preparation. All of these are industry-recognized certifications that the students can take with them after they are completed with the program. EO Meals opened for business on March 6 with the students selling take-and-bake French bread pizzas to staff at each Albert Lea school building. Staff place their order using a Google Form and the students prepare and deliver the items to each building at the end of the week. To date, the students have sold more than 130 pizzas and are looking to expand their offerings for the next school year. The pizzas are delicious!

The Albert Lea Transitions program continues to explore many new and exciting opportunities for our students. Throughout each school year, the team continues to build additional employment opportunities as well as educate businesses and employers about the benefits of hiring our amazing students.

Sheila Riebe is the executive director of special services for Albert Lea Area Schools.