The STARS Program Supports Students with Autism and Related Services

Just like the name of the program suggests, all those who work in Oswego 308’s Skills Training and Autism Related Service are STARS.

The program is housed primarily inside the Opportunity School and G.O.A.L program building at the old Traughber Junior High, 61 Franklin Street, and works with to support students from all age levels from all over Kendall County school districts with autism and related needs.

The STARS program is made up of a mix of staff, including teachers, paraprofessionals, therapists, social workers and other related staff.

Deven Butusov, special education coordinator, said the program has been in its current location for three years and existed two years.

“It had been a very successful, well supported program,” said Butusov. “It services a variety of students with varying needs …who need more of that behavioral and social academic support.”

Elli Wold, a teacher with STARS, has four individual junior high age students she works with daily along with three paraprofessionals. “Our scheduled day is very structured, routine based,” said Wold.  “We set up center rotations where students move between different centers.” 

Those include computer work, social story, and plenty of sensory breaks. “The sensory breaks help regulate their systems,” said occupational therapist Elyse Wilson. “It’s a proactive approach to helping keep them calm.”

Many of the students in STARS are non-verbal and communicate using different devices – from a picture exchange system to using iPhones and iPads.

One student dropped by during our conversation and greeted me with a “hello” through an audio program in his iPhone, which Wold said is how many “talk.”

Social worker Katie Lightner said the primary function of the STARS program is helping students with coping skills. “We work very closely with behaviors to find the right plan to see what causes a behavior and help the kids work through it.”

The goal of STARS, said Butusov is to help students “foster as much independence as we can.”

Added Wold, “Our ultimate goal is for our kids to be an active member of their community.”

To gain real life experience in doing so, the students go on community based instruction trips to places around the community – like Wal-Mart or the police station – and work to be independent in that setting.

“Everywhere we go people ask us who we are, where we’re from,” said Wold, saying the individuals they work with – from cashiers to customers – are great. 

“They’re very understanding if somebody’s having a behavior. They want to know how this works and we’re always willing to take the opportunity to explain and show them who we are.”

“To navigate the world… people take that for granted,” said Butusov.

The trips are always very scheduled, starting with a social story, said Lightner. They work up to the trips for weeks, and then once on the trip walk through it, from stepping off the bus to each individual activity.

STARS students also work on life skills inside their classrooms with class jobs from doing dishes to personal grooming to watering plants.

Unfortunately, that structure was disrupted some with the April flooding. STARS had rooms located in the basement level which were damaged by water and the program had to condense to rooms on the first floor level.

“It was challenging, but everybody pulled together,” said Lightner, as staff came to the school and Saturday and Sunday to move items and get rooms together for the start of the next week. “We wanted to have as much normalcy as possible when classes began again.”

Students in the STARS program can transition out of it into regular classes in the district. Although STARS is housed in the Opportunity School, the therapists and social workers travel throughout the district to assist individual students.

Of STARS itself, Butusov said, “We do a really do a great job of celebrating the smallest amount of progress to the big  stuff. It makes our staff and our school unique.”

The students themselves are what all of the gathered staff saw as the most rewarding part of their jobs. “To see them grow and progress and how their personalities have developed over the year… All four of my students are very different are very special and unique,” said Wold.

“They teach us a lot more than we can teach them,” said Butusov.

The STARS program doesn’t stop teaching at the end of this week either when everyone else is headed for summer break. The program runs all year long to support its students.

“[The staff] really give these kids a safe, fun, loving environment to come to very day. Everyone in this program is extremely hardworking,” said Butusov.

The following are all staff members of the STARS program:

Administration:

• Devon Butusov

• Elli Wold
• Jenny Alonzo

• Katie Lightner
• Daniel Rortvedt
• Elyse Wilson
• Bridget Cibulskis
• Pam Howell
• Kendra Turner
• Kristy Gibson

• Dan Wehrli
• Clint Rocen
• Derek Jones
• Eric Morganegg
• Adreanna Williams
• Steven Howland