BayShore School was started by Lenore Colacion Hayes in 1992. She had been homeschooling her son for a few short years through a private independent study program, when its director announced his retirement. After examining a number of other homeschooling programs, she couldn’t find one to meet her few basic needs – the flexibility to create a suitable learning environment for her Asperger’s son (instead of using a prepackaged curriculum); no standardized testing; no church or religious requirements; and a resource person who could be contacted for guidance (if needed … or not). She decided to develop such a program, thinking that surely there must be other homeschooling families searching for a similar path.
While homeschooling her son, and starting BayShore, Lenore also completed her graduate studies in community/clinical psychology, with an additional emphasis in educational psychology. During, and after grad school, she worked as a counselor intern for a public elementary school; a counselor for learning disabled university students; a graduate assistant for abnormal psychology classes; and a psychotherapist. And, she parented and homeschooled her Asperger’s Syndrome son:
“My experiences with Nigel have created an understanding of the difficulties negotiating through meltdowns, wars-of-wills, and sensory intolerances. My life has also benefited from the innumerable rewards of parenting this young individual as he has grown into an empathic, creative, and loving adult. “
Prior to returning to college to pursue psychology, Lenore spent the first decade of her adult life working in the record industry as the manager/publicist/producer for local progressive rock bands during in the late 1970s and 1980s. She was a music publicist for an independent Los Angeles PR agency, and for a major record company, before leaving the industry to settle into motherhood.
In 2002 she authored a book on homeschooling special needs children for Random House. And more recently, Lenore has returned (just a bit) to her music industry roots by assisting some of her musician friends with their respective social media projects.