Trinity Magazine: Fall 2006
Combining Tenacity and Whimsy to Create Something Extraordinary
The Story of St. Coletta and Sharon Brady Raimo ’69, ’94
By Aimee Dolaway Olivo ’99
 As she walked me out, we met a group of students. This was the
first time they had seen her today and there were smiles, hugs and
high-fives all around. “My job is better than being Madonna,” she
said, “all I do is show up and they are all over me!”
This is Sharon Brady Raimo ’69, ’94, CEO of The St. Coletta Special
Education Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., an educator, an
entrepreneur and a Trinity woman, though not necessarily in that
order.
So, let’s go back to the beginning.
Sharon Brady Raimo came to Trinity in 1965 because it was “the place
for a Catholic girl who wanted to go to college in Washington.” At
Trinity, she majored in English and made friends for a lifetime. It
is these close friendships that she credits as the most important
things she took away from Trinity. “When you can say you’ve had
friends for 40 years…that is an amazing thing. Those women have been
there for me for every single thing that has ever happened to me.
They are my base of operations. I can’t imagine my life without
them.” In fact, Raimo recently found out that her Trinity classmates
raised $25,000 to name the CEO’s office at St. Coletta in her honor.
“I was so incredibly touched and this is an example of how Trinity
affects your whole life, not just your four years at college.”
After graduating from Trinity in 1969, Raimo taught high school
English in public and private schools in the Washington area and
later, after earning her master’s degree at Trinity, began teaching
special education. As a stay-at-home mom after the birth of her
daughter, Sarah, Raimo became actively involved with the Association
for Retarded Citizens (ARC) in Washington. She also became a
surrogate parent – and strong advocate – for two boys with profound
mental retardation, eventually suing the District on behalf of one.
After the birth of her son, Peter, Raimo continued to stay home for
several years, eventually going back to teaching part-time. When the
principal of her children’s public elementary school, Veola Jackson,
asked Raimo to come on board as an administrator, she agreed. Raimo
credits Jackson with “teaching me everything I know about how to run
a school.” In 1993 Raimo was given the opportunity to bring together
her passion for education and advocacy for those with severe
disabilities: she became principal of St. Coletta of Greater
Washington, a school serving students with mental retardation,
autism and multiple disabilities.
In 2003, Washingtonian magazine named Raimo a Washingtonian of the
Year, writing that in 1993, “St. Coletta of Greater Washington had
19 students, a budget of $210,000, and a lack of leadership. Sharon
Brady Raimo, a former teacher, fundraiser, and advocate, [took] the
principal’s job – and promptly turned the place around.”
Upon taking the job, and with her two children still in grade
school, Raimo returned to Trinity in the School of Education’s
master of science in administration program. Very different than her
traditional undergraduate experience, Raimo deeply appreciated the
fact that the program was friendly to women who had full-time jobs
and families.
Students at St. Coletta are from the Washington-metro area and are
between the ages of three and twenty-two years. To be admitted, they
must be diagnosed with mental retardation, autism or multiple
disabilities. Many also have secondary disabling conditions such as
speech language disorders, vision, hearing, orthopedic and/or health
impairments. Many times, says Raimo, in the public schools, these
children get second best of everything. Their “self-contained”
classroom in the public schools would be in the basement, next to
the boiler room, Raimo explains. Imagine an autistic student in a
public school: disembodied voices speak through the
PA system; every 40 minutes loud bells ring and everyone gets up and
moves around. “Then people say the students have behavior problems –
the system created those problems!”
Over the years, Raimo moved St. Coletta several times – always on
the search for a better space. Each time, though, she had to take an
existing building and make it work for these special students. “As
we got better buildings, we were just retrofitting. It was just a
Band-Aid. Since 1999 I’ve been looking for space in the District to
build from the ground up, to really do it right.”
With a brand-new and quite funky building on the corner of
Independence Avenue and 19th Street in southeast Washington, Raimo
has finally done it right.
After years of wrangling with the D.C. government and neighborhood
associations, wading through bureaucratic red tape and changes in
the D.C. Public Schools leadership, Raimo often felt like she was
taking three steps forward and one step back. Throughout all of it,
however, she remained true to the vision and dedicated to the
students – whom she calls her clients. And that dedication paid off.
Designed by one of the nation’s top architects, Michael Graves
(perhaps best known by pop culture as the designer of an innovative
housewares line for Target), the new St. Coletta Special Education
Public Charter School is unlike anything Washington has ever seen.
The 19th Street side of the building has red and cream colored
bricks and a row house feel, designed to mirror the classic D.C. row
houses across the street. Turn the corner onto Independence,
however, and everything changes. Suddenly, the building becomes five
“houses” in shapes ranging from a triangle to a cylinder in bright
colors like blue, yellow, and green. It is stunning.
But, that is just the beginning.
Step inside and the fun continues. Beautiful and bright colors are
everywhere. Sun streams in through skylights and large windows. This
is a far cry from the basement classroom next to the boiler room. On
the contrary, it is the best of the best for some very exceptional
students.
When they held the open house for parents, hundreds attended. Raimo
said, “They were thrilled. There were so many tears. These parents
had to fight for everything for their kids. Now they knew their kids
were getting the best.”
Even more important than the whimsical colors is the quality of the
facilities. With obvious – and well-deserved – pride, Raimo says, “I
don’t think there is anything like this in the country. Most schools
try to retrofit buildings. When you have the opportunity to build
something from the ground up, you really think about every little
thing and what is going to be best for the kids.”
Indeed, every single element was designed with the special needs of
the students in mind. There is a state-of-the art hydrotherapy room,
a sensory room and special art and music studios. The gymnasium has
special swings for the autistic children. The students are divided
by age into “houses” which are self-contained units designed to
provide each group with their own small, safe community. There are
no bells, no PA system. Everything is calm with wide-open spaces.
Except, however, when students need to be in a smaller, darker space
to calm down, then there’s that, too. “The goal,” says Raimo, “is to
make them feel calm, safe, protected.”
And yet, as fabulous as this new facility is, Raimo’s goal is to
take the students out of it as much as possible. “Hearing ‘my
school,’ ‘my classroom’ makes me want to scream. The community…the
world is your school. You need to take your clients out into the
world and bring the best into your classroom. Take advantage of the
resources you have right outside the school door.” For example, St.
Coletta’s older students travel to the store to buy groceries and
make their own meals. They also participate in “job sampling” and
learn to navigate public transportation. The goal is to teach life
skills so that these students can be as independent as possible.
It is important for St. Coletta students to go out into the world
not only for themselves, but for the rest of us, too. “If the world
would only pay attention, they have a lot to teach,” says Raimo.
Initially, many of the staff members at the vocational training
sites are nervous. But, when Raimo talks to them later, they tell
her, “I am so glad so and so is here. He makes our day happy. He
makes this place a happy place.” St. Coletta’s students demonstrate
virtues such as patience, persistence and forgiveness. They don’t
give up. “Would you try one million times to learn to say a word?”
Raimo asks. “They do.”
Certainly Raimo is an educator. But, she thinks of herself as a
business person, an entrepreneur. That’s her advice for students in
Trinity’s education programs and for teachers today. “Being an
educator, you should think of yourself as being an entrepreneur. Act
as if you’re going to start up a fabulous business. Put things
together in a way that things haven’t been done before.” She
continues, “the children are your clients. They are the people that
have to be put first. The staff is your service personnel. The
students deserve to get the best every hour of every day.”
The best. That’s just what this Trinity woman has given to the
amazing students at St. Coletta. In the spirit of Trinity’s
founders, Sharon Brady Raimo saw the need to provide better
educational opportunities for an under served population and had the
vision and tenacity – along with a touch of whimsy –
to create something extraordinary.
Return to Trinity Magazine Fall 2006 Table of Contents
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