It was just over one year ago that town meetings in Bald Eagle were happening to protest the opening of Pyramid Healthcare’s Greentree Village.
After one school year of operation, The Daily Herald researched the progress made in the first year. Last Saturday and Monday, you read about how the education component was coming along from Director of Education John Dibert.
The Daily Herald sat down with Betty Streightiff, the director of Greentree Village, to talk about the first year in Bald Eagle and what the future holds.
“I think the first year went pretty well,” said Streightiff. “Not only did the kids adjust, but the staff adjusted to the community kids.
“We were used to dealing with residential kids. This is a whole new experience for us having the students here for a partial day. I think it went very well. We had to expand our license here for the partial program.
“It went from 30 to 50. We started with 16 kids at the beginning of the school year and ended up with 50 kids on our roster. It was more organized and went smoother at the end of the school year than the beginning.”
Part of the better organization was from working with the kids over a period of time and learning to adjust on the fly.
“We had to change some things to accommodate the kids,” Streightiff continued. Part of the changes were because of the behavioral and mental health diagnosis of the kids. We changed our schedule around to accommodate that.”
The purpose of Pyramid locating Greentree Village in the Bald Eagle location was to be able to serve students of nearby school districts as well as Tyrone.
“We had students from Tyrone, Huntingdon, Philipsburg-Osceola, Bellwood-Antis, Moshannon Valley, Mount Union, State College, Hollidaysburg, Tussey Mountain, Southern Huntingdon and Clearfield,” said Streightiff. “The students who attend day classes are in home district.”
The goal is to give the children at a therapeutic education and return the kids to their home school district without the problems that brought them to Greentree.
“Of the 14 students from Tyrone who attended this year, we are starting seven of them at the middle and high school in August,” said Streightiff. “There are only going to be a few kids who attended the therapeutic school last year who will be returning to Greentree to start the 2003-04 school year.
“That is because of their needs. We should have about 80 percent of the students who were here in 2002-03 returning to their home districts to start the new school year. The ones returning are because they have special needs that are met by this program.”
The opening of Greentree Village came quickly and is a part of the success of the program.
“I think this has been a success and I can compare that to other programs that have opened,” said Streightiff. “I want to say that a lot of that is because of the staff we have here. This is the best counseling staff that I have ever worked with. We have a couple who worked at our Blandburg facility, but most have started here since the facility opened. Corey Anderson of Tyrone completed his internship with us and did so well, we added him full-time to the staff as a counselor.”
Before the opening, fear of the unknown was one of the concerns of Bald Eagle residents.
Many of the residents felt there was a need for a facility like this, but were concerned that it was being located in their neighborhood.
Nearly one year later, the kids of Greentree are blending into the community.
“The neighbors are treating us great,” said Streightiff.
“One person came by and donated a basketball hoop and a volleyball net. The kids are attending church services here in the community and the church has been very receptive. They dropped off flowers that the kids have planted on the grounds.”
With the end of the 2002-03 school year, it didn’t mean the job was finished at Greentree Village.
Nearly 40 kids are enrolled in the summer program.
