YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Cheryl Corll says the ACLD School helped her daughter Abigail gain confidence, enjoy reading and reach her fifth grade skill level.

“Honestly, she feels like she belongs,” Corll said. “She does not feel like an outsider anymore.”

She started taking Abigail to the ACLD – All Children Learn Differently – Learning Center when the girl started to decline in class at her parochial school. Testing at Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley determined Abigail has dyslexia and dysgraphia, a neurological learning disability that causes difficulty in writing and in translating thoughts into written language.

Corll, who also suffered from dyslexia as a child, attended the center as a girl and believes it helped her.

After seeing her daughter improve at the center, she asked Erica Brown Fire, ACLD director, if Abigail could enroll in the school. Fire enrolled the girl. 

This marks Abigail’s third year at the school, and Corll believes ACLD was the right choice. She appreciates the small class sizes, individual attention and family atmosphere.

School and Center

ACLD Learning Center, 118 E. Wood St., was established in 1972. ACLD School started in 1993 at parents’ urging. It began with 12 students and has grown this year to 75. A recently completed addition allows more students to enroll.

The school works with students who have specific learning disabilities including dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and traumatic brain injury. The center serves students during the summer and after school. It also works with adults.

Fire started at the school as a volunteer in 1982 and returned to work there in 1985. Seeing the progress in students like Abigail is the best part of her job. 

Fostering that progress starts with ACLD’s credo.

“We have a very developmental philosophy where we address the academic problem, but we also address the underlying difficulties with visual perception, processing, auditory perception, auditory processing, motor skills,” Fire said. 

School personnel encourage students to move while they’re thinking and learning, engaging their whole bodies. Some desks feature stationary bicycle-type pedals under the chairs so students cycle while learning.

“And for us, academic intervention begins on the child’s functional level,” she said.

To determine that, students are assessed with diagnostic tests when they start at the learning center or school. That’s what guides instruction, telling teachers what skills a student may be missing and at what level to begin. 

“Every child has an individual curriculum based on what their particular needs are academically and in all the underlying skill-building ways,” Fire said. 

That may mean a student is reading three levels below their grade but excelling in math. The school caters to a student’s level in each subject area.

Students focus nearly two hours each school day on reading and writing and math. Part of that time is specialized intervention. Classes are small, and the majority of classroom teachers are intervention specialists as well. 

Advocacy

Besides the school and learning center, ACLD counts advocacy among its concentrations. It’s something the school and learning center’s founder, Mollie Kessler, started. Fire served as Kessler’s assistant director at ACLD and became director when Kessler retired. Kessler died in 2015.

Fire helps parents understand what services their children are entitled to receive.

“They don’t understand what they can ask for,” she said. “They don’t understand what rights they have or their children have, so all the parents that are involved in the learning center, their kids go to other schools. If they come to me with a problem, then I try to help them.”

That may mean attending a meeting with them or writing a letter on their behalf.

Long History

Lydia Brown-Payton is the school’s administrator. She started volunteering there when she was a teenager. Brown-Payton, who is Fire’s sister, struggled in school as a child and wanted to be a special education teacher to help other children. She contacted Kessler to volunteer. After earning her degrees, she worked at the Youngstown City School District for 11 years while still volunteering at the learning center. When the school opened, Brown-Payton left her job and started working at the new school.

She loves what she does, especially working with children.

“I enjoy working with the kids and making sure that they’re getting the support that they need, and as the administrator, I get to work with them on where they’re struggling – socially, emotionally, behaviorally,” Brown-Payton said. “That’s been very rewarding because you can see the change over time …”

The school serves first through eighth graders, and most remain through eighth grade, she said. 

The expansion, completed before this school year, allows more children to be served. The smaller building capped enrollment, and staff were using hallways for office space.

“We have a really big staff, which is different than a lot of schools because we have so much support staff,” Brown-Payton said. 

At most schools, classrooms include a teacher and an aide. ACLD classrooms include intervention specialists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.

The school pursues and receives grants and donations from individuals, and organizations also help with operations. Most children attend via scholarships that cover tuition.

That community support is something that impresses Brown-Payton.

“When we have a need, this community comes to our aid,” she said. “They rise to the occasion.”

Both Brown-Payton and Fire learned much from the school and center’s founder.

“When I came here, Mollie used to take me to training programs about advocacy,” Fire said, her voice breaking. “She taught me so many things, and I sat with her many, many times and listened to how she talked to the parents, because they would be so upset.”

When she thinks about Kessler, that’s what she remembers most.

“She was like their savior because there was nobody else to help them with their child,” Fire said. “They were wrecked over their child not being able to function in a regular school, failing everything. Many of them were in trouble all the time, and she knew what to do, so she trained me to do that. And I still carry that piece on as part of my job every day.”

Corll sees dramatic changes in Abigail since she enrolled her in ACLD.

“She has a smile on her face when you ask her about school, and she loves going to school there,” she said.

Pictured at top: From left are ACLD students Erion Fulton, first grade; Aurora Paonessa, second grade; Erica Brown Fire, school and learning center director; and Brayden Fedorchak, fourth grade.