Some school districts outside the boundaries of Stevenson High School and two of its feeder districts are wanting to join the group’s special education cooperative, but Lake County officials, so far, have prevented the move.
Antioch-based Grass Lake Elementary District 36 recently tried to become the first district to join the Exceptional Learners Collaborative (ELC), which Stevenson officials started last school year with Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103 and Kildeer-Countryside School District 96 to provide unified special-education services to students at the districts’ different buildings.
To do so, officials at District 36 in June 2016 gave the required one-year notice to leave Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL), a similar cooperative of 31 area school districts in the county. But the county’s regional board of education fell one vote short of a supermajority needed to endorse the change earlier this spring.
Julie Gonka, member of the regional board who voted against District 36’s request, said that after decades of work, SEDOL is able to provide special education programs that the fledgling Exceptional Learners Collaborative, so far, have not been able to provide
“Right now, SEDOL offers them programs, and this other group of people is not a program,” Gonka said. “We know that our children are taken care of at SEDOL.”
Gonka also commended the three districts that are a part of the ELC for providing “phenomenal” special education but also noted how the new cooperative doesn’t operate out of a dedicated building. Instead, they send instructors to the districts’ different buildings, she said.
Stevenson and the two feeder districts a part of the ELC went through a similar process in 2014 but won approval from the regional board of education to withdraw their students from SEDOL and their funding. At the time, Stevenson officials said they paid about $1 million a year to SEDOL for services.
The activity comes at a time when the prices for technology used in audiology, physical therapy and other services have come down, while equipment has become easier to store in school buildings. The districts a part of the ELC also have wanted to do more to integrate students with developmental disabilities and traditional students.
Officials with the three districts back in 2014, when pursuing the idea of the ELC, also said at the time that costs were a factor.
District 36 Superintendent Terry O’Brien said his district also could have saved on costs while receiving comparable or better services by working through the ELC. Officials with the ELC also have indicated that they would provide only the special education services that an outside district needed, potentially improving the quality of services offered to students, he said.
He compared the issue to condiments and how a small district, such as District 36, only needs a small packet of mayonnaise to deliver proper special education.
“We don’t all need a gigantic jar of mayonnaise,” O’Brien said.
In response to the recent activity, ELC Executive Director Megan Clarke said members with the regional board of education may have heard some “misinformation” about how the new cooperative works, but she did note the group uses all of its member districts’ buildings, which is a departure from how SEDOL operates.
She also stressed that the ELC isn’t actively recruiting new members but rather, officials from outside school districts have approached members of the cooperative about joining them.
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“We had some districts approach us, but we are not going out looking to bring people in,” Clarke said.
Stevenson Superintendent Eric Twadell did start discussions more than a year ago with Stevenson district board members about the ELC accepting requests from outside districts.
And in recent weeks, board members with Stevenson, Districts 96 and 103 approved changes to the ELC’s organizational charter that would permit the move.
Twadell and Terry Moons, board president of the ELC, have said they would be able to take in outside students at a cheaper cost to outside districts and offer those officials only the services that they have requested.