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2009: Special Needs Citation

A Push to Succeed
Stephen Gaynor helps bright students reach their potential

Founded by friends Miriam Michael and Yvette Siegel in a two-bedroom apartment on the East Side, the Stephen Gaynor School has been educating special needs students since 1962.

Today, the school resides within a 36,000-square-foot facility on West 90th Street, boasting 18 roomy classrooms, each with breakout rooms for small group and individualized instructions. There’s a full-size junior varsity basketball court and areas specifically designed for computer, science, art and music. The school has 193 students with a less than 3-to-1 student-teacher ratio. Michael’s grandson Dr. Scott Gaynor is now head of school.

According to Gaynor, the founding friends bonded while attending a child psychology class at New York University. The idea that special needs children often require personalized instruction is still a key part of the school’s philosophy. Accordingly, Stephen Gaynor uses an instructional approach that is both multisensory and interdisciplinary. Math, reading and language specialists collaborate in each classroom. While specialists and clinicians often work with students on a one-to-one basis, group learning is also stressed.

Growing up, Gaynor spent time volunteering in the school’s art room, but education wasn’t his first profession.

“I was a banker early in my career,” said Gaynor, who has been involved with the school for the past 14 years. “It’s the best decision I ever made professionally and I’ve never looked back,” he said. “You feel like you’ve accomplished something every day you walk in.”

With its focus on children with learning disabilities, the school helps kids overcome obstacles posed by dyslexia, AD/HD and other language-based learning disabilities.

“Our students are really bright children who just aren’t meeting their academic potential,” Gaynor said.

The cornerstone of the school is individualized instruction that builds a curriculum around each child’s needs.

“Each intervention is tailored to a child’s needs, from speech and language support to occupational therapy and additional support for reading or math,” Gaynor said.

Janice Spector’s 12-year-old daughter Noah is dyslexic. She previously attended P.S. 234 but has since switched to Stephen Gaynor.

“The minute you walk into the school there’s a feeling of warmth, caring and understanding of children,” said Spector, who is head of the school’s parent association. “They truly understand and care about kids.”

Spector said that her experiences with public schools weren’t great: Classes were large, and special education work was often accomplished outside the regular classroom, so special needs students would miss parts of regular class work.

“His door is always open—Scott Gaynor is always accessible,” Spector said. “My daughter has soared at the school. She’s grown both academically and socially.”

Recently, Stephen Gaynor has begun working with other schools to help with special needs instruction. The learning center program, which started four years ago, brings 1st and 2nd graders from P.S. 84 to Stephen Gaynor twice a week to work with reading specialists, at no charge.

“It’s been a great program,” Gaynor said. “We’ve had great success as far as bringing these children back up to grade level with their reading skills.”

For Gaynor, the atmosphere is simply energizing.

“Every morning I jump out of bed and I’m ready to come to work,” he said. “That tells you how much I love working in this environment with an amazing, dedicated faculty and students who give 110 percent every day.”

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Stephen Gaynor School
148 W. 90th St.
New York, N.Y. 10024
Scott Gaynor, Head of School
212-787-7070
www.stephengaynor.org
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— Alan Krawitz