Six middle school boys made a smooth transition to Secret Harbor’s new group home on South Fidalgo Island in August as the program completes its move to staffed residential homes for behavior-challenged students.

“It’s all going really well so far,” said Brian Carroll, Secret Harbor president and CEO. “We had a very easy transition into the school year.”

The boys moved into the home at 6076 Highway 20 on Aug. 12 after the school left its Cypress Island facility.

“The kids in the middle school are thriving right now,” Carroll said. “We had pretty high expectations and we’ve exceeded them all.”

Secret Harbor leaders decided to change the program’s focus and house students in staffed residential homes. The Fidalgo Island home is one of four in the county. Secret Harbor purchased the house for $459,000 in November 2007.

A Burlington home opened in early March and a home in Mount Vernon opened around the same time as the Fidalgo home.

A home in Sedro-Woolley should be open by early November after the city agreed to issue a permit after initially denying it. Carroll said they’re now working on licensing and hiring staff as well as talking with the Department of Social and Health Services to determine what kids to serve.

“It’s a unique opportunity having a building and staff and a blank slate as far as what we can do over there,” he said. “That’s one of the beauties of these smaller settings. You really have the opportunity to address the needs of the state.”

He said the Sedro-Woolley home could serve younger kids or possibly girls.

A neighborhood open house Aug. 4 before the Fidalgo Island home opened drew seven neighbors along with supporters, state representatives and other agency people.

“The big issues were what kind of youth are living there and what kind of supervision there is for the programs,” Carroll said.

He said people felt more comfortable knowing the kids are monitored 24 hours a day.

Carroll said the Anacortes School District has been very supportive in the move, which made the shift to group homes easier.

“We’re super pleased with the Anacortes School District,” he said. “It shows the other school districts what we can do and makes Secret Harbor kids a little less scary to them just by knowing it could go so well.”

Maggie Thompson, district director of special programs, said everything at the middle is going well.

“We have a lot of support for the kids and that includes support from the regular staff, our special education staff and Secret Harbor staff. We are very pleased with the transition the boys are making,” she said.

Thompson said some of the boys are trying out for after school sports or otherwise getting involved at the school.

She said it helped to have several months to prepare the shift into the middle school because the district knew where the boys were functioning academically and socially.

The Anacortes School District has overseen instruction at Secret Harbor since 1989.

Secret Harbor’s residential facility on Cypress Island served about 25 middle school- and high school-age boys who were abused and neglected and often grapple with mental illness or substance abuse.

The change to residential homes came after several unsuccessful attempts to site and construct a residential campus similar to the Cypress Island model on 36 acres of land east of Bellingham in Whatcom County.

Now, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources will demolish the Cypress Island structures and restore the site to its natural state.

DNR added 135 acres to the existing state-owned conservation areas on the island with the purchase of land from Secret Harbor.

Carroll said everyone is now taking time to catch their breath after all the work getting the homes set up and everyone moved.

“What we did was absolutely monumental,” he said. “We had to move all the staff, all the kids, all the stuff and maintain supervision and programming for the kids through that process.”


Secret Harbor fundraiser

Secret Harbor traditionally holds its Celebrating Success fundraiser in early September. Because of the move off Cypress Island, the fundraiser has been rescheduled for March 7, 2009, at the Swinomish Casino.

For more information call Brian Carroll, Secret Harbor president and CEO, at 293-5151.