The William S Baer School Partnership Board Inc

Hi friends,  

I’ll be running in the Baltimore marathon this October for the Baer School. I’m really excited to give back to a cause that means a great deal to me. The William S. Baer School is  a Baltimore City Public School for kids with severe disabilities and fragile medical conditions. The school’s mission is to create an environment that challenges students to reach educational and therapeutic success.

I am reaching out for your help and contribution to this cause. Your support for this cause will make these kid’s lives better, healthier and more successful & independent.

Baer school’s expenses differ from, and exceed, those of typical public schools, and additional fund raising helps the school in a few key areas, such as building improvements, specialized equipment and field trips. Here is a short video on the School and a link to the school website:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1utIK45ao0o&t=31s 

https://www.thebaerschool.org/school/

We are organizing a group of volunteers to assist the Baer School with creating an outdoor space that encourages mobility and independence. Our goal is to transform one of the school’s existing outdoor areas into a permanent, interactive track that mimics a miniature town. Our inspiration is derived from Baltimore’s own “Safety City”, located in Druid Hill Park. This outdoor facility teaches children about traffic and provides a fun way to become educated about safety.

The Baer School is a public school in Baltimore City for children with complex, severe, or multiple disabilities and fragile medical conditions. The main focus of their curriculum is to support the students’ socialization skills, functional living skills, academic standards, and prevocational training, with a focus on mobility, communication, and independence.

With the help of partnering organizations, we believe this will become a vital aspect of the school’s education system. We are raising funds for the project that will go towards an exterior mural, an outdoor track area as well as storefronts and signage to help activate the school's outdoor space. All funds will go towards the safety city project and any remaining funds will be donated to the school in full.

High school student Gabrielle Auchincloss has volunteered dozens of hours working with the severely disabled and medically fragile children of the William S. Baer School. Before she goes to college, Gabby is donating a service award she won. This gift will provide seed funding for innovative Apple technology that will enable student learning and communication at the school. Today, she asks you to join her in supporting this project, which will better the lives of the Baer children.

For over 75 years the William S. Baer School, a Baltimore City Public School, has served children with disabilities from all over Baltimore city. The school’s population has evolved from its first students, who had polio, to students with multiple and severe challenges.

The challenges Baer students face include orthopedic disabilities, fragile health conditions, developmental delays, and other health impairments such as Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, traumatic brain injury, and a host of other rare syndromes and disorders. Children are enrolled as young as three years old, and older students graduate at, or by, age 21. Baer’s 185 students come to school on 26 school buses from all over Baltimore city. More than 45 students are tube-fed, and more than 95 percent live below the federal poverty line.


The Baer School serves the most medically fragile students in Baltimore, but diagnoses and limitations don’t make the school unique: our children, staff, and volunteers do. Baer staff members see the ability, potential, and individuality of every child, and set expectations high, then higher again. They create individualized curricula and goals for each student, and deliver these with dedication, patience, caring, consistency, and love.

Because of this care, and because staff and teachers truly believe in them, Baer’s children work extraordinarily hard to make strides in academics and life skills, and leave school each day closer to their goals. Baer students press back against the limits imposed by them with strength and determination, and rise up to exceed high expectations. As a result of these efforts, our Baer students thrive.