‘It was a challenge’

Alan Ashworth

Akron Beacon Journal USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s been 25 years since Lyn Goodwin- Shawver started SUPER Learning Center in her basement with 14 students.

The founder and owner of the Lakemore K-12 school that concentrates on children with special needs had always known she wanted to teach children.

“I had always dreamed as a child of owning my own school,” she said in an Aug. 26 interview at the school. “I always wanted to play school and I was always the teacher.”

Goodwin-Shawver has a master’s in education from Malone University and a bachelor’s from Walsh University.

When her daughter Alyssa Benzo was born, Goodwin-Shawver was told by doctors her daughter wouldn’t survive.

“She couldn’t lift her head until she was 10 months old,” Goodwin-Shawver said.

‘It brought my daughter up four reading levels’

Alyssa did survive, but had to over-come disabilities, with dyslexia the most challenging. When most children were reading, Alyssa couldn’t recognize her own name, Goodwin-Shawver said.

With her mom’s help, Alyssa made rapid progress.

Goodwin-Shawver homeschooled Alyssa and her sister using methods to stimulate neural activity and remap the brain, she said.

“It brought my daughter up four reading levels in one year,” she said.

That success didn’t go unnoticed in the community. Soon, parents were asking Goodwin-Shawver to teach their children.

From basement to former public school building

The basement school followed. “I started the school with 14 kids in my basement,” she said. “It was a challenge but it was a good time (for the school).”

By year two, she had 35 students. “I was teaching every subject in every grade,” she said. “About the sixth year, my late husband said, ‘It’s time to get a building.’” That was accomplished with the former Lakemore Elementary on Wilson Street.

She said at least two families moved to the area so their children could attend SUPER, one from Columbus and one from California.

Jen Whitaker, who now lives in Ohio, said she and her husband, Jeff, knew the school in Long Beach, California, that their son Jack, diagnosed with high-functioning autism, was attending wasn’t helping him succeed.

“We went state by state,” Jen Whitaker said. “We searched the country.”

They moved from California to Ohio 12 years ago after Jeff Whitaker toured SUPER Learning Center.

“It just fit our Jack,” she said. “They became our family.”

He flourished at SUPER, she said. “(At) the end, he was leading their Bible study and on student council,” she said.

150 students, with small classes and individual attention

Special Education Coordinator Laura Smallsreed said SUPER works with 32 districts. She’s been with the school since her internship.

SUPER now has 150 students, with waiting lists for ninth and 11th grades, Goodwin-Shawver said. It has a staff of 60, with a goal of no more than 10 students per class. When they get larger, Goodwin-Shawver said, a teacher or aide is added.

The school uses an individual approach to coax each student to their maximum potential, she said. SUPER stands for Students Using Proven Educational Resources.

“I like to say SUPER is like a crystal,” she said. “Every way you look at it, something different comes out.”

To celebrate its quarter-century of existence, SUPER plans a silver jubilee celebration on Oct. 11.

“We’re going to have a huge event,” Goodwin-Shawver said. “…We’re going to celebrate the community that helped us get where we are (today).”

‘All the faces of my kids’

She hopes one day to have another SUPER location for a separate high school.

“There are so many kids who need what we offer,” she said.

Until then, Goodwin-Shawver said she’s living her dream, with more than 1,500 students having been educated at her school. Her first student, her daughter, went on to higher education and a family.

“When my time on earth is done,” she said, “I want to look back and see all the faces of my kids.”

“I had always dreamed as a child of owning my own school. I always wanted to play school and I was always the teacher.”

Lyn Goodwin-Shawver