Longtime special education teacher — and her therapy dog — retire from Secondary Therapeutic Classroom at Bert Nash

For nearly four decades, Lanell Finneran has been a teacher.

It isn’t easy to walk away from something she loves.

“It’s bittersweet because I love this job,” Finneran said. “Have there been moments of frustration? Absolutely. But that’s with every job. This is one of the most fulfilling jobs I could ever have. Progress sometimes is very slow. But when there is progress, it’s like a special gift that you get.”

May 23 is Finneran’s last day as a special education teacher in the Secondary Therapeutic Classroom at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. She and Aaron Kim-Luellen, a longtime paraeducator in the therapeutic classroom, are leaving at the same time.

“This is such a close-knit work environment, I wasn’t going to work with anyone else other than Lanell,” said Kim-Luellen, who plans to go to nursing school. “She’s the driving force in this classroom and the reason I stuck around so long. It’s important to have a job you enjoy and love, but to have coworkers you feel the same way about made it real easy to come to work in the morning.”

Finneran has been involved in the therapeutic classroom since 1994; Kim-Luellen since 1999. The classroom was started in 1988 — a collaboration between Bert Nash and the Lawrence School District — to provide a structured, therapeutic environment for middle school and high school students who were experiencing social-emotional issues and struggling to function in a traditional classroom setting.

Finneran will miss coming to work at the therapeutic classroom. She said her trained therapy dog Ranger, a Jack Russell Terrier, would also miss the contact with students and staff at the Bert Nash Center.

“He loves his time in the classroom and running the hallways in search of someone who will pet him or toss his ball,” said Finneran, whose other Jack Russell Terrier, Scout, was a therapy dog for 10 years before retiring.

For Finneran, working in the therapeutic classroom has been a labor of love.

“Every morning I walk into this building, I am thankful for the opportunity to work in such a beautiful space and I will miss not being a part of this much-needed program,” Finneran said. “But I’m ready to go on a new journey, and we’ll see what that brings.”

Finneran and Kim-Luellen are both employees of the Lawrence School District, but they consider Bert Nash to be home, since that is where they have gone to work every day and they used to be members of the Center’s staff.

“I feel like Bert Nash is like family,” Finneran said. “Starting out working at Bert Nash was really helpful to me, because I built relationships with the therapists, administrators and support staff.”

Working in the therapeutic classroom has been challenging at times, but also highly rewarding and sometimes life saving.

“I’m very honored and humbled that we were able to be that piece that was needed at the right time to allow somebody to not end their life, to help them find that little ray of sunshine in their heart to keep going,” Finneran said. “That little light is there, that’s like a pilot light when you turn it out, it’s out. But if we can help them increase that pilot light and help them feel warm and comfortable and better about themselves, that’s the best.”

For students, the therapeutic classroom offers a safe alternative to regular classes. The results can be life changing.

“Lanell entered my daughter’s life at a very important time,” said Annette Keen, the mother of a former student in the secondary therapeutic classroom. “My daughter was deeply depressed dealing with bi-polar disorder and getting her meds in line as well as having severe self-harm issues. It was a very scary time for us all. Mainstream school just wasn’t working for her. I was scared to leave her alone.

“Lanell gained her trust right away and accommodated her different issues,” Keen said. “This made school something she looked forward to instead of dreading each day. The therapeutic classroom became her best part of the day. I was worried before that she wouldn’t graduate, but thanks to her hard work to get better and the support of the therapeutic classroom staff my daughter graduated on the honor roll. I was the proudest mom in the stadium.”

It has been hard for Finneran to focus this week with all of the goodbyes and messages from former students and parents of former students.

“I am overwhelmed with memories,” Finneran said. “I have loved it here.”

Past students, learning that Finneran is retiring, have sent her messages of gratitude for the influence she had on their lives.

“It only saddens me to think about all of the future kids that will be missing out on the life-changing experience that I was so lucky to experience,” former student Mark said. “You have made me a better person. You believed in me, stood by me, and gave me a second chance at school and at life. “

“I think back to who I was the day that I first stepped foot into your classroom. Insecure. Depressed. Angry. Suicidal. Truant. Lost, in every sense of the word. Then I think about who I was on my last day in that classroom. Confident. Happy. Alive. Close to graduating. I thank God, daily, for your presence, intervention, impact, and role in my life and in the development of who I am,” former student Andy said. “So, congratulations, Lanell. Congratulations on a career of saving lives. I could never say thank you enough.”

Now that she is retiring, Finneran will no longer have the day-to-day contact with students in the therapeutic classroom, but her hopes for them will always remain the same.

“My goal for them is to be happy in life,” she said.