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Lake Drive was
established in 1969 under the auspices of the Mountain Lakes Board of
Education as an educational day school alternative to residential placement
in the State School for the Deaf. It opened in rented quarters in The
Community Church in Mountain Lakes, with one teacher, a teacher aide, a
speech therapist, a part-time consultant audiologist, a part-time consultant
speech therapist and seven students. Over the next three years the number of
students increased to approximately 21. The faculty kept pace and by 1972,
having outgrown the physical facility, the school moved to its present
location at Lake Drive. For the first 10 years at Lake Drive, our program
was housed within the Mountain Lakes fifth and sixth grade building. In
1978, the program became the sole occupant of the building at Lake Drive and
Laura McKirdy, Ph.D. was appointed principal, a position she held until her
retirement in 2004. Dr. McKirdy continues to serve as a consultant for Lake
Drive. Currently, the Lake Drive administrative team includes Michele Klimovitch, Supervisor of Programs, and Patricia Filiaci, Supervisor of Pupils.
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Today, the school serves approximately 250 students, ages birth to high
school graduation, from nearly 100 communities, including Newark, Paterson,
Jersey City, New Brunswick, Elizabeth, the Oranges, Plainfield and Trenton,
in 12 New Jersey counties. In addition to those in the Lake Drive School
building, students are also currently educated at Wildwood Elementary
School, Briarcliff Middle School and Mountain Lakes High School, all within
the Mountain Lakes School District. The Lake Drive Program also operates a
mainstream itinerant support program serving additional students. In this
program, five full-time teachers of the deaf travel throughout central and
northern New Jersey to provide services to deaf and hearing-impaired
children in their home school districts. During the 2004 school year, Lake
Drive began to offer itinerant audiological services. Forty-eight Lake Drive
students who are partially "mainstreamed" attend the Mountain Lakes High
School. Other partially "mainstreamed" students attend Wildwood Elementary
School and Briarcliff Middle School in Mountain Lakes. We also offer an "Ivy
Hall" program during which Mountain Lakes community children join our
auditory/oral primary classrooms three afternoons per week. Teachers of the
deaf, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical
therapists, school psychologists, social workers, paraprofessionals and sign
language interpreters, staff our specialized programs. In addition, Lake
Drive offers programs in all allied subject areas including visual arts,
physical education, music, library and drama. Extra curricular activities
include an intramural sports program as well as a book club.
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