Going the extra mile:
Student excels with unique school connection
NELSON COUNTY, KY Michael Phillips has a smile that can light up a room.
And when he walks down the hallway of Foster Heights Elementary with his tool belt on, he always gets a wave from the teachers, staff and other students as he has become known for keeping things in check at the school.
Nine-year-old Michael is a student with a learning disability and speech apnea, but with his strength in math, a desire to build and a good work ethic, he has become Facility Lead Clay Bowman’s right-hand man.
Bowman took notice of Michael’s attention to detail after a couple of big rainstorms caused a bit of a leak in one of the classroom ceiling tiles.
Michael was quick to point it out.
“If he spotted something that needed fixing, anytime I would pass by the classroom, he would try to get my attention to show me what was wrong,” Bowman said.
About a month into school, special education teacher Kelsey Gilpin asked Bowman if he would be interested in having Michael join him on some projects to give him experiences outside of the classroom.
Bowman was immediately on board and began incorporating Michael into day-to-day projects and tasks one hour a day, every day.
In fact, if you check the logs attached to the fire extinguishers at the elementary school, you will see the initials “MP” dotted on the line, signifying that they have been checked by Michael. Making sure the fire extinguishers are full and meeting code was one of the first tasks Bowman had Michael help him with at the beginning of school last year.
“I look forward to that more than any other part of my day,” Bowman said.
By the end of the school year, Bowman had worked with Michael on using several tools, even helping him sand tables and pressure wash.
“I’m wanting him to feel the accomplishment of ‘I actually got to hold the drill today or the sander,’’ Bowman said. “I think it makes him feel proud and kind of grown up a little bit that he’s trusted with tools.”
Michael struggles with reading and verbal communication, so on days Bowman doesn’t have a lot of projects going on, they use their time to play with the water hose, where Bowman has Michael practice writing words with the water.
Michael is fascinated by the movement of the water and creating blockades to watch the water flow around it. His mother, Casandra Snow, said that while on summer break swimming and playing outside are some of his favorite activities.
Snow said she feels like it’s a good thing that Michael has made a buddy at school, even if they aren’t a classmate, and she said Gilpin, who works in the multiple to severe disabilities classroom, has been great at communicating with them on how to continue working on his speech at home.
“Michael seems less likely to become aggravated as quickly as he used to if we are having trouble understanding what he’s saying,” Snow said. “The last couple of years in school have really helped Michael develop his speech and his interactions with people.”
“He makes friends almost everywhere we go,” she added.
Gilpin said Michael is a very visual learner. So, it’s not surprising that he loves Legos and is fascinated with plants and using his tablet.
“His communication is a deficit for him, so we don’t work around that always, but like, ‘what can we do to make him successful with supports and then work on those communication skills too, to build those up,’” she explained. “He’s done very well. He is making more speech sounds than he ever has.”
Gilpin has been with Foster Heights for 10 years and last year she was working with seven full-time and two part-time students. When walking into her classroom, the string lights across the room are warm and the space feels like walking into a living room with a cozy reading corner and a couch. But across the room there is an organized technology space and typical classroom desks, giving students a variety of spaces to learn within the same classroom.
She said walking into the room at the start of the year she gave every student a blank slate from what she knew of their experiences prior to her being their primary teacher.
“I started off the year just getting to know Michael, what he liked, what he disliked, things he was interested in, and I realized very quickly that Michael needed structure, just consistency across the board,” Gilpin said. “He really understands like, ‘hey, when I’m at this table, this is my task or if I’m at this area, this is my task.’”
Gilpin said Michael’s relationship with Bowman has had a major effect on him.
“When Michael is having rough days, Mr. Clay will come in and talk with him, and, you know, just kind of guide him and say, ‘hey, we don’t talk to our teachers this way’ or ‘when we’re in class this is more important. Your work in this room is more important than you going out with me.’ And I think that really has an effect on how Michael works in our classroom and is contributing to our classroom.”
Gilpin said for his education goals, they are focusing on sight words, communication and vocabulary, addition and subtraction and being able to attend to tasks without prompting.
Once Michael has finished his morning tasks and 1 p.m. rolls around, he knows it’s time for him to go work with Bowman.
But he can’t do it without the proper tools. In his tool vest, he carries a tape measure, pencil and more.
“I didn’t know he would like it as much as he did, but we can’t do nothing if we don’t have that little vest,” Bowman said with a laugh.
Michael often walks around the building and takes measurements of window seals, tables and chairs. Bowman said one of the biggest changes he saw in Michael since he began working with him was how he was interacting with other people.
“He was very kind of timid,” Bowman said of the first few times he worked with Michael.
Now, he doesn’t mind leading someone by the hand to show them the latest project they have been working on.
Bowman was a director of maintenance in nursing homes for 15 years and through the COVID-19 pandemic prior to his job at Foster Heights. He said after bearing witness to the struggle of nurses and the elderly battling the virus, he found working for an elementary school was a good change of pace.
“The sad part about it is when people come in nursing homes, for a lot of times, it’s the last part of their life,” he said. “But now with kids, you see them growing up.”
Bowman said just being able to work with Michael and form the relationship with him is one of the biggest rewards of his job.
“Not just him, but (to see) all the kids work for something and achieve it and just to see how far he’s come from the beginning of the year to now,” Bowman said.
Bowman added one day they were taking screws out of the walls, but he didn’t have the material to patch them that same day, so they came back later to fix them. He said the holes were so small he wasn’t sure he’d be able to find them all himself.
“So, I think a month went by and I got the stuff to fill the holes. And I told him, I said, ‘today we’re gonna fill the holes where we took the screws out.’ I didn’t think he would remember it at all, but he took me right to where every one of them holes were. Nothing leaves his mind. He can remember stuff better than I can.”
Bowman said every one of those kids in Gilpin’s class has a different value and gift, and for Michael, he said his memory and work ethic shine through.
“It has shown me that these kids have so many more skills than I anticipated coming into it,” Gilpin said. “It also shows me the dedication of some of our faculty members at Foster Heights and how willing they are to go the extra mile for our kids.”