McNary has begun to unify the school one class at a time or in this case with three classes. This year three new courses have been introduced to McNary: Unified Theater, Unified Business, and Unified Arts. 

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Unified is where students with disabilities are joined in a class with GenED students. In these classes, students learn to communicate and connect with students who have disabilities. 

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Unified PE was the first class to start blending both groups of students into one class, it has been at McNary for years. Adding new unified classes gives students more opportunities and abilities to learn with others. 

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Unified Theater is one of the classes that has been talked about for years and has finally been created. The class is taught by Mr. Tom Cavanaugh, McNary’s theater teacher/director, during third period with upperclassmen in the advanced theater class. 

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“We do theater games and activities that are meant to be icebreakers and community builders. We are gonna do little mini-performances for each other to get used to it. And our ultimate goal is to rehearse and put on Alice in Wonderland,” Cavanaugh said. 

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Each student was put in certain classes based on their interest and personality crafted by Mrs. Kelly Parsell. Since each class is really different it helps the students get new experiences. 

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Unified Art is a good class for students who do not like to stick to one certain subject of art. With hopes of having an art show in the future to present all the student's artwork in future months. 

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“We are really gonna touch on everything. We are working with some clay right now, and watercolors, we've done some 3D sculptures. Along with painting, we do other color work exercises. A lot of hands-on fun art projects,” said Mr. Mark Kohley, upper level art teacher and Unified Art teacher.

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Joining students in different forms of arts is a great way to connect all the students. But not everyone works well with art, so they made a unified Business class. This class is taught by Mrs. Kinsey McNaught during third period.

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Unified business helps the students gain more leadership skills through their school with the mission statement to serve McNary. In this class they go out on Mondays to help clean up the school, and in the future they have hopes to run the vending machines. 

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“When I went here the SPED and GenEd were so separate. Then I started teaching here and got to know the kids in SPED and they are some of the hardest working students, who really help the GenED kids,” McNaught said. 

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These unified courses are continuing to grow throughout McNary giving all students different opportunities. Students need to have prior experience in these courses before taking a unified class. Theater requirements is being in Advanced Theater, and Business is taking the first entry class. 

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“Most popular are Unified PE, Unified Art, Unified Theater, and even marketing and research. And having partners working with artists, actors, and musicians is great to see,” Kohley said.

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