VALDOSTA — The Horizon Academy has a new home nestled in the former ninth-grade wing of the old Valdosta High School.

The move begins a new partnership with Valdosta City Schools for Horizon Academy, a Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support program that helps special-needs children with emotional or behavioral issues.

The program usually has about 100 students at a time, who are in and out of the program and come from Lowndes, Brooks and Lanier counties and VCS. There are eight classrooms with one to two paraprofessionals in each class.

Horizon Academy was formerly housed at 1500 Lankford Drive in Lowndes County Schools, but Samuel Clemons, regional director, said county schools voted to move Horizon out in April to make room for the pre-k program.

Dr. Todd Cason, city schools superintendent, took the program in so it could stay in the area. The program officially moved into the old high school July 31.

“The transition has been very smooth, and the support has been awesome,” Clemons said. “We’re excited because we think this is going to be a great relationship. There was some apprehension about moving because we had been at Lowndes for so long, but that has since changed.”

For Clemons and his staff, it’s the new — and much more spacious — building that has made the move easier.

Britta Mink, who has taught special education for 29 years and been with Horizon Academy for two years, was decorating her new classroom in preparation for the new school year.

She draped the room lights with semi-transparent cloths and put together a trampoline for her students with sensory issues. Mink said the new building, though bigger, allows for the staff to be closer together.

“It’s a larger space, but we’re all together,” Mink said. “It’ll be nice to have everyone all on one hallway.”

Clemons said the additional space will also inspire more creative, yet therapeutic opportunities for their students.

“We have more space, and we’re excited about that because at some point we hope to have a musical therapist, which is really good for our students,” Clemons said.

The program has an art therapist and service dogs the students read to, Clemons said. It has proved helpful for students of all levels of severity because it has a calming effect.

Clemons said he also hopes to utilize the empty science labs in the wing to allow more creative expression for his students.

The city schools will not be the program’s fiscal agent as the county schools were in the past. Instead, the Coastal Plains Regional Education Service Agency handles the program budget now.

City schools will provide the program with in-kind services, such as transportation, custodial, nutrition and nursing needs.

Katelyn Umholtz is a reporter with the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256.