While a bunch of fuzzy, yellow chicks were hatching at Village North Rehabilitation and Nursing Center as a project of the Special School District (SSD), many residents were also coming out of their shells.

Edna Meyer, a retired farmer, gave clues on how to raise them. Lucille Hanselman came regularly to check on them. Levi Ferguson made many late night visits to check on the their progress when he couldn't sleep.

Residents carefully monitored the 12 eggs set up by the SSD students in a homemade incubator. "Once the residents came the first time to see the chicks, they came every day," says Carol Zoller, activities assistant. "It has been a great form of interaction between them, other residents, and the students. Most came by daily to see how they had grown, and when they started to hatch, there was a lot of excitement. The students have done the project before, but this is the first year we have included the residents."

Interest was kept high through daily trivia games. How many eggs does a person eat every year? 200. Which state produces the most eggs? California. Winners won chocolate eggs or enjoyed meals donated by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

But to the relief of the residents and students alike, the fate of these chicks will not be in the fryer. Through an arrangement with a farmer in Union, Missouri, they will become laying hens, and the students will enjoy omelets made from their eggs.

Hatching the chicks was the idea of Rena Armstrong. Armstrong heads up the community-based program at Village North Retirement Community (VNRC), which has been running at the facility since 1989 as a part of the SSD's Transitions program. The program incorporates both classroom learning along with gaining job skills for students 17 to 21 who are autistic, learning -- or language -- disabled.

The day starts for the students at 8 a.m., where they spend two hours in their classroom housed in a converted apartment at Village North. Teaching focuses around self-reliant living skills, which this day was banking, budgeting and how much it takes to manage a household. Even field trips teach valuable life lessons, as trips are taken by Bi-State bus to orient the students to public transportation.

At 10 a.m. they report to a variety of jobs at Village North Retirement Community or Christian Hospital. Students rotate through jobs, spending half of a semester in areas such as patient transport, gift shop, radiology, film library, dietary, daycare center and medical records. Being given a chance to discover which type of work suits them best has paid off for many of the students, with up to 80 percent finding jobs after graduation, many of them at Village North.

The students all agree that this non-traditional class setting suits them. "Sometimes there are so many kids in a classroom you can't get help. Here you can get help," says Janine Walley, 20. David Johnson, 18, agrees. "I like how everybody gets along. Nobody makes fun of people."

"The students and residents complement each other," Maureen Dunn, VNRC administrator says. "The students really do enhance life for our residents here."

But student Shelley Kramer is still puzzled even after her lesson in embryology. "We never learned which came first, the chicken or the egg."

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