NORWICH – Job skills, real life work experience and a paycheck are just some of the benefits a group of Norwich High School’s special education students are getting out of a new cooperation between the school and CWS.

“This is a really great opportunity,” Wanda Wallace told members of the district school board Monday night, as she gave a presentation of the CWS Work Site Program she has created for the juniors, seniors and “super” seniors in her Life Skills class.

The purpose of the program, she explained, is to help students transition into the workforce after they receive their IEP diplomas.

Wallace said she first contacted Lisa Berard, vice president of Rehabilitation for Chenango ARC, about initiating the program in June, when she learned she would be teaching the class for the first time.

“We got talking and it went from there,” she said. While it took time and effort to iron out the details – as well as getting support from parents, obtaining working papers for some students and releasing medical records – but it was well worth it, according to Wallace.

“This is the perfect meshing of school to work,” she said, and a win for both organizations.

Ten of Wallace’s 13 students currently participate in the pilot program, which is a first for both Norwich and CWS. The students spend a total of three hours a week working at the contract packaging company, which is divided into two mornings a week.