Three staff members from the Gramon Family of Schools were honored at the 15th Annual Awards Dinner presented by the Council of Private Schools for Children with Special Needs at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Monroe Township. The Gramon Family of Schools serves children and young adults with special needs. Michelle Mackey of Rockaway, Najat Rosario of Clifton and Melissa Johnson of Verona each received the Ruth K. Newman Award. Newman founded the Gramon School in her South Orange home in 1939, inspired by the belief that each child has the potential to learn and succeed through an individualized program based on that child’s unique strengths and weaknesses.
“Ruth K. Newman was a pioneer in helping to enrich the lives of countless children with special needs,” said David Weeks, Executive Director of the Gramon School. “The Gramon Family is proud of Michelle, Najat and Melissa for carrying on the legacy of our founder.”
Michelle Mackey was a personal aide for children on the autism spectrum at the New Beginnings School for two years prior to her move to Glenview Academy. There she assists students with emotional and behavioral disturbances to achieve academic, social and emotional success. Michelle has dedicated herself to enhancing the classroom climate by implementing a token economy system with her one-on-one student. That program was then expanded to every student in the classroom. In addition, she devotes her time to helping the Glenview Academy staff apply behavior modification techniques similar to those she learned at New Beginnings. Michelle is currently furthering her education to pursue her career goal: to become a Special Education Teacher.
Najat joined the Gramon Family of Schools in 2003 as a School Social Worker, where she is an advocate for the students and families she serves. Najat received her master’s degree in social work from Fordham University, specializing in children and family services, with additional classes at Rutgers. Najat holds a certificate in domestic violence and has completed a course for supervision of social work students. In 2001, Najat was recognized by the Mental Health Association of Union County for her dedication and contributions to the social work profession. Najat believes her role as a social worker is to increase students’ awareness, the first step to bringing about change and growth.
Melissa Johnson is a Speech Language Specialist at New Beginnings and currently oversees the Gramon Family of Schools speech programs. She is trained in Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems, auditory processing, oral motor therapy and feeding therapy. Melissa has initiated graduate student internship programs and assumed responsibility for student enrollment in that program. She also provides staff and parent training workshops, consulting services for special education classrooms and home-based speech therapy. In 2004 she was named Therapist of the Year at New Beginnings.
