When Farmingdale’s Dawn Schneider and Malverne’s Jo Elizabeth Richards became educators, they never thought they would start a business. But the Nassau BOCES special education teachers saw a need in their field and took the initiative to make a change.
“A lot of students’ parents were contacting us asking for a recommendation for tutors and where they can take their children for tutoring,” Richards explained. “We had options, but as an educator we don’t recommend those places because they do not require their staff to have a teaching certification. Additionally, they don’t work on the curriculum that we do in school, so a lot of kids end up more confused as a result of those places.”
So 10 years ago, the duo solved the problem they were consistently running into and cofounded TASK LI, Tutoring & Academic Services for Kids of Long Island. What started as a service out of the client’s home or in a local library has now evolved to a storefront in Massapequa with more than 30 certified teachers, including a speech and language pathologist, working to assist local students across all grade levels in achieving academic success, whether they are general education or special education students.
With affordable options for single sessions or month-long memberships that awards each child five hours per week to be used as much or as little as they need, TASK provides a unique system to deliver exceptional help to students in attendance.
“A big thing, too, we tell parents when they come in is that if there’s something you need and you don’t see us offering it right now, tell us, we’ll get it there for you,” said Schneider, who noted that TASK opened their storefront this past May just in time to offer Regents Exam preparatory classes at parents’ requests.
With classrooms capping at six or seven students, each child is able to receive individualized attention specified to their needs and abilities. Areas of study include STEM, writing workshops, Spanish, drama, literacy and study skills, among many other topics.
“We’re both the type of women that we’re driven, we always want to try the next step, do the next thing, show our children if you have an idea, if you have a goal, you work at it, you reach it,” stated Richards. “We have never been, even through this whole process of these 10 years, we’ve never been absent mothers. We’re extremely involved with our kids.”
And it is this dedication to putting their families first that sets TASK apart, as the cofounding duo said that they look at their business first through the lens of mothers, then as teachers and, finally, as business owners.
“Yes, we own a business, but we’re moms and we’re teachers,” Richards continued. “I think that’s why we’ve been able to be so successful and have so much success with the people that we bring in. If I wouldn’t sit you down with my child to work, we’re not hiring you. So really the people that we bring in are people that we really trust.”
With the help of their husbands, who Schneider and Richards endlessly praise for getting the storefront on its feet, the two women were able to make their dreams of providing extra educational opportunities to students a reality.
“Sometimes we look at each other and we go, ‘Wow, is this real,’” Schneider mused. “I think it’s that feedback on hearing how many lives we’ve touched [that makes owning this business so rewarding].”
Richards commented that above all, she is proud of showing her children that you can make anything possible when you want it enough.
“We want them to see that you can do whatever you put your mind to and families come together and your family supports you, and that’s what happened here,” she said of her business collaboration with Schneider. “This has been both of our families’ undertaking.”
TASK LI is located at 1121 N. Broadway in Massapequa. To learn more, email taskli@yahoo.com.
