Past Directors of Oakland Center

1977-1978       Dr. Lowell Ense

1978-1993       Michael D. Weinroth

                                                                                             

Principals of Oakland Meadow School

1993-2002      Michael D. Weinroth

2002-2008       Carol Quinn

2008-2011       David Ashton

2011-2023    Sara Clifford

2023-Present    Amy Lazic

Programs Serving Students Daily at Oakland Meadow School                         

• SID/PID Medically Fragile Program 
• EBD/MOID/ASD Program
• Transition classrooms for students in the SID/PID Program 

 

Programs/Services at Oakland Meadow School

• Audiology Department
• Pre-K ARENA Assessment Teams
• Speech /Language Department

 

Itinerant Programs Serving Students Across Gwinnett County

• Adapted Physical Education 
• Deaf/Hard of Hearing Itinerant Department
• Homebased Department
• Hospital Homebound Department
• Orthopedic Impairment Itinerant Department  
• Special Olympics
• Teleclass Department
• Vision/Hearing Technicians 
• Visual Impairment & Orientation and Mobility Itinerant Department  

The vision of Oakland Meadow School is to be exceptional at providing all students with an individualized education and the necessary supports to be successful in college, career, and life. The school’s mission is to provide research- based, innovative, and individualized learning opportunities for all students to acquire the knowledge and skills to be successful in life.

For more than 40 years, Oakland Meadow School— formerly called Oakland Center— has served Gwinnett County Public Schools’ students with special needs. The original Oakland Center located at 950 McElvaney Lane in Lawrenceville was built in 1977 and opened its doors in January of 1978. The opening of this facility was met with great enthusiasm by parents and staff serving Gwinnett County children with moderate to severe disabilities.

Oakland Center originally served as a diagnostic placement center for students with disabilities and also functioned as the office site for all GCPS itinerant personnel.  In 1982, Gwinnett County Public Schools built a new elementary school which it named Benefield Elementary School. This school was built and attached to Oakland Center so that the two schools shared a campus. A unique feature of the campus was that all students attending both schools used the cafeteria located in Oakland.

Another interesting postscript relating to Oakland Center’s unique history involved a study in 1983 by the Center for Social Policy, a Washington, D.C. based agency. They were contracted by the U.S. Congress to identify exemplary special education practices throughout the country and report these back to the President, Congress and all 50 state departments of education. Agency personnel were directed to Gwinnett County to observe various programs. During their visit, they were informed of the unique relationship between Oakland Center and Benefield Elementary. When personnel from the Center for Social Policy made their final report to Congress, they highlighted the fact that nowhere, to their knowledge, had a school been built onto an existing special education center. While special facilities are routinely built onto existing regular schools, the opposite had never occurred.

In 2006, Dr. Quinn and the faculty of Oakland Center prepared for a move to a new facility, located at 590 Old Snellville Highway in Lawrenceville. In preparation for the move, a new school name was proposed and approved by the Gwinnett County Board of Education. The new name, Oakland Meadow School, paid tribute to the history associated with the schools that formerly held the “Oakland” name as well as the meadow where the new school was being built.

Oakland Meadow School opened in August 2007 in a new state-of-the-art facility in Lawrenceville.  At this time, the new facility also became the site for the North Metro GNETS (Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Supports) program.  This program supports the needs of students (K–5) with social, emotional and/or behavioral challenges. Like its former facility, the new school shares a campus with an elementary school, Winn Holt Elementary School, allowing Oakland Meadow students in the North Metro GNETS program the opportunity to benefit from interactions with students in general education.

Oakland Meadow School continues to serve students from across GCPS and Buford City Schools who are significantly medically fragile and meet eligibility for the SID/PID Program. Students served in the SID/PID classrooms at Oakland Meadow School have medical needs that are more complex and require a higher level of care than SID/PID students who are served through the local school. OMS has a registered nurse on staff at all times that continually trains and supports staff involved in student care. 

Oakland Meadow School also houses several itinerant departments and programs that provide both site-based and outreach services to meet the unique instructional needs of GCPS students served in special education from ages 3 through 22.