Dott Webb Celebrates 50 Years At Little Flock's Sunshine School

LITTLE FLOCK -- The Sunshine School & Development Center has gone through a couple of names and several locations since it opened in 1958, but Dott Webb knows the story.

Webb, an early intervention service coordinator for the school, has been tied to the school since the beginning. A Sunday reception will honor Webb, 77, who has been with the school in an official capacity for 50 years.

"She is the Sunshine School personified," said Beth Christl, special education director at the school.

Her years of experience help her navigate the paperwork required to do the job, Christl said. Webb can find a way to get what families need, whether it's help paying an electric bill, or a special car seat for their child.

"When you have a child born with special needs, your life changes forever," said Cyndi Bilyeu, the school's executive director.

The school offers services from birth through life, Bilyeu said. Webb is often the first person families meet when they come to the school. She helps families understand they aren't alone, and helps them navigate the paperwork and regulations that come with getting help for their child, Bilyeu said.

"She takes on these families as her own. This isn't just a job for her. This is her life's work," Bilyeu said.

The school is a personal cause for Webb. Her younger brother, Ronnie, was the reason the Sunshine School was created, she said. In 1956, her parents Blanche and Elbert Clardy met with another family and started a classroom in the basement of First United Methodist Church in Rogers. Her mother was the first teacher and her brother, Ronnie, was one of two students.

Special services, such as those provided today at the school, didn't exist for Ronnie.

"There was no place for him to go," Webb said.

After a month of meeting in the basement, there were eight children with parents interested in joining the class. The idea for the Sunshine School got wings.

"They knew they had to do something," Webb said.

The school expanded during the next couple years. In 1957 they moved to a church at Vaughn because it was a central location in the county. Community and county money paid for a new building in Vaughn. The school was formally organized in 1958, but Webb remembers the new building opening between 1958 and 1959. She volunteered at the school, then was hired in 1964 as a classroom teacher for children who were between ages 5 and 7.

She drove children from Pea Ridge to Gene's IGA in Bentonville in her station wagon. There they'd board a school bus and head to Vaughn.

Students ranged in age between 5 and 18 at the Vaughn school. They built a gymnasium, had a shop and sold ceramics.

Attitudes and names have changed over the years, she said. The school's first name included the word "retarded." It's still a medical term, but one she shuns as flat sounding. Webb prefers the Sunshine School name because it sounds bright.

The rules in education also changed, calling for special education students to attend mainstream schools. The Vaughn campus closed in 1991, according to school history. Children were transferred to public schools. It was a difficult transition for students with profound disabilities, and their teachers, Webb said.

Today, the Sunshine School offers preschool classes, early intervention services for young children and community support services for school-aged students and adults.

The Sunshine School added a preschool program in the 1980s. Teachers moved to Bentonville, first in a house on Tiger Boulevard with offices tucked elsewhere in town. A couple of classrooms were opened in Rogers. A new school was built on Moberly Lane in Bentonville, but was outgrown in five years, Christl said. The Little Flock campus opened in 2007.

About half the adults in programs through the school once attended as children, said Amy Palmer, community support services manager. When a new person comes into the life skills and community integration program they'll mention the old school, she'll take them to see Webb and they'll trade stories, Palmer said.

"She has had a big impact in the special needs community," Palmer said.

Aneasha Moore, a parent, said she heard about the Sunshine School from daycare facilities around the area. She wanted her child to be challenged, not coddled, and staff members get that.

Webb is both the welcoming grandma that puts families at ease and the savvy navigator of state requirements, Moore said.

Her approach has always been to befriend a family first, then offer help, Webb said.

Acceptance is key for special needs families, she said. Anyone who has walked with a disabled child into a grocery store will see it, adults stepping back or offering awkward glances. People don't understand the child can't help his or her appearance or certain behaviors, she said.

She never tells a parent everything will be perfect, she said. These children face challenges, Webb said.

"I say, 'It's going to be better,'" Webb said.

Webb has worked part time for the last six years, but said she has no plans to retire.

"It will be some big shoes to fill when, or if, she decides to retire," Christl said.