Photo Gallery: Tour of Cardinal Autism Resource and Education School Renovations

The , the Mentor school specialized to help students with autism, is on schedule to open October 1.

Its first class will consist of 12 students – six students in the class for third through fifth grade, six more who are high school-aged, according to Mentor Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Hoynes.

During the next three years, the school will add three more classes: prekindergarten; kindergarten through second grade; and sixth through eighth grade.

The goal is for the schools to have 42 students by 2014. Some of those students will be from outside the Mentor Schools district.

In the future, the district also hopes to have physical, occupational and speech therapy sessions for children after school hours.

For now, the is being renovated to .

Some of these renovations include:

• classrooms with adjacent observation rooms where parents or other teaching professionals can watch a class without the students seeing them. This prevents the observers from interrupting the lesson or distracting the students.
• sensory rooms with specialized lights and tactile objects that can be used to calm students who have become aggravated.
• a Practical Assessment Exploration System (PAES) room, which in layman's terms, is a room where students can learn career skills.
• an Independent Living Room where high school students can learn skills that will help them live independently.
• an education center that will house both districtwide training sessions and classes focusing on autism education.
• an autism resource library and lounge for parents.

Check out the photo gallery to see the renovations as they happen, as well as learn more about the district's plans for CARES.