Peaceful Schools is first graduate of South Side incubator

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Apr 11, 2008 by Tampone, Kevin

SYRACUSE - Lura Lunkenheimer had been running her company, Peaceful Schools, for about three years when things started to get a little cozy at corporate headquarters.

She had been managing the business from her home in Marcellus and knew she needed more room to grow. But after looking at about 30 different buildings in Syracuse, she wasn't sold on the idea of buying or leasing a location of her own.

So Peaceful Schools became one of the first tenants of the business incubator at Syracuse University's (SU) South Side Innovation Center. SU established the center in 2006 to encourage business growth and entrepreneurship on Syracuse's South Side.

In February, Peaceful Schools became the incubator's first graduate.

"It was really a tremendous opportunity for us," Lunkenheimer says of the innovation center. "It helped us manage some of our risk.

"And I never took a business class before. So I was learning a lot of the business side of things at the same time."

The innovation center provides mentoring and other help for its tenants. The goal is to graduate incubator companies within three years.

Peaceful Schools is now located in a 3,000-square-foot home on Prospect Avenue, originally built in 1870.

The company has tripled its employee count since 2003, when Lunkenheimer bought the business from the previous owner. Peaceful Schools now has about 15 people working full time and another 16 who work part time.

The business provides conflict-resolution and mediation programs for area schools. The company was a good fit for the innovation center because some of its client schools are on the South Side.

"Lura's achievement is an encouraging indicator that the [innovation center] makes a meaningful difference in the development of new and innovative entrepreneurial businesses," says Nola Miyasaki, executive director of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at SU's Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

The Whitman School runs the innovation center.

Lunkenheimer is a trained school psychologist. She worked for Peaceful Schools, then known as Peaceful Resolutions for Living, for three years before buying the company when the previous owner wanted to retire.

Some of the business's major clients include the city school districts in Syracuse and Utica and the Madison-Oneida. Board Of Cooperative Educational Services. School districts pay the company fees for its services.

Peaceful Schools generally assigns its employees to specific school buildings. Those workers spend anywhere from two to four days a week at their schools.

They provide a coordinated set of programs in classrooms, as well as mediation for students on site. The company also runs after-school programs.

Lunkenheimer attributes much of Peaceful Schools' recent growth to its long-standing relationships with clients. She says her company has been working with some schools in Utica for eight years now.

"I think when working with schools, credibility and relationships with administrators are really important," she says. "Rightfully so, our schools are very protective of who they work with. They need to know they're doing something that they can feel safe with."