Having chosen a life calling in the service of special needs children, Robert Maher still deemed Dobbs Ferry-based youth services agency St. Christopher”™s Inc. a “necessary evil.”
“I think what”™s happened since the 1960s is there has been a push in the child welfare world to get kids out of institutions, which by the way, I”™m very supportive of,” said the executive director of the 125-year-old institution. “I wish we weren”™t necessary. I wish every one of our children had a stable home and a school district that could handle their many challenging needs. But sadly, there will always be a percentage of kids who will need this type of residential and educational experience to get them back on track.”
In 2004, Maher hit a roadblock just days on the job when the New York City Administration for Children”™s Services withdrew some $86 million in contract funding over allegations of falsified case worker records; the issue arose from a relationship with a foster boarding home program in the Bronx and East Harlem, which has since been ended.
“I knew that if we were going to survive, we”™d have to build a school, build a program and start redefining St. Christopher”™s as people once knew it,” he said.
The former principal of Briarcliff High School, who had been accustomed to operational budgets in the realm of $20 million, was fit for the job, though he gave the credit to the agency and Greenburgh-North Castle Union Free School District boards of directors.
“The first thing we did was build this beautiful Kenneth Clark Academy, because if you want to have a quality education, you have to have a quality educational facility,” he said.
St. Christopher”™s, among the various campuses and programs it operates, grew from 50 students to nearly 400.
There is a school for some 200 special needs youth in Yonkers called Greenburgh Academy, which serves a geographic population stretching from Long Island to Orange County.
And, luck was on the school”™s side when in December 2009, Maher received a phone call from the New York State Office of Children & Family Services.
“They told us McQuade School (McQuade Children”™s Services in New Windsor), which had been founded in 1862, was closing, and ”˜Would we consider taking it over once they closed?”™” he said. “They had a brand new building, 20 acres of property and four dorms.”
After a series of negotiations, Maher said “it looks like they will give us their property and we will agree to run their Kaplan School there under the Greenburgh-North Castle banner and the St. Christopher”™s overall banner.”
If all goes as planned, Maher expects the school to open in January 2011 and reopen the residential facility in the fall of 2011.
At the Dobbs Ferry campus, high on St. Christopher”™s list is raising enough money to complete the construction of a visual and performing arts center.
The grand total needed would be about $2 million, Maher said.
“We won a $70,000 grant by a group called the Thursday Club to build a dance studio in the visual performing arts center and we just got up to speed on the fire code regulations,” he said. “We”™re really looking for a benefactor right now.”
Maher said former New York State Sen. Nicholas Spano awarded the school $100,000 to start the process.
