I'm Sharon Owens, the special education coordinator/director at Paideia.  My job is to make sure that the special education services run well, attend all IEP meetings, work with parents, coordinate with regular education and special education teachers, communicate with the students' home school districts, maintain state special education reports and the special education budget, and run the Fast ForWord computer program.  I am also a Paideia Academy school board member.

I have an EdD in Educational Administration from the University of Minnesota and have taught at both the elementary and secondary level.  I was the special education director for Richfield Public Schools for five years and for Eden Prairie Public Schools for three years.  For six years, I was the middle school principal in Merrill, Wisconsin, before moving to Maui in 1999, where I taught in the Hawaii Public Schools during the day while teaching at the University of Phoenix in the evenings (and selling watercolor paintings under the Banyan Tree in Lahaina on weekends).  In the fall of 2004, my dad died and I returned to Minnesota to take care of my mother, who is 90 years old and has Alzheimers.

I have enjoyed being part of the Paideia Academy staff for the past four years.  I've especially liked getting to know the families who have chosen to send their children to this charter school and the joy of seeing growth in our students with disabilities.