BEVERLY — After 132 years, changing your name isn't easy.
But the Beverly School for the Deaf — or what is now The Children's Center for Communications — is doing just that.
"It's going to really help broaden and communicate what we do on campus," Executive Director Mark Carlson said. "So many people don't realize what we do."
The school, at 6 Echo Ave., does two things. The first is to educate kids whose only disability is being deaf, and that's usually what people understandably associate Beverly for the Deaf with, Carlson said.
The second, and less well-known area of expertise, is to educate kids who have trouble communicating due to other disabilities, like autism or developmental challenges.
"It's really what we've been doing for the last 20 years," Carlson said.
So The Children's Center for Communications is an umbrella name that encompasses all of that. Inside that organization, the Beverly School for the Deaf will still exist, and Carlson is negotiating with the state to officially establish a name for the program that assists kids with other disabilities.
Eventually, the school will launch a $15 million capitol campaign to construct a separate building for the program.
"This has been percolating for many years," Carlson said. The board has been considering a name change for a long time to better reflect what the school does.
In a partnership with Montserrat College, students have been working for about a year on a new logo for The Children's Center for Communications. The symbol will be on all the brochures and literature, and the Web site, which is being redone.
Hopefully, people will associate The Children's Center for Communications with Beverly School for the Deaf and better understand the services that are offered there, Carlson said.
"For us, it's sort of a total rebranding."
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