A $21 million budget for the La Grange Area Department of Special Education was approved Monday by the Lyons Township High School District 204Board, which is the fiscal agent for the special education cooperative.
LADSE has 15 member districts. It provides such services as nursing, occupational therapy, vocational programs, speech language therapy and school psychology.
LADSE executive director Sheri Wernsing said the budget is about a 2.5 percent decrease from last year.
“We worked really hard to reduce the percent of the budget paid through shared costs or assessments (to member districts),” she said.
The budget reduction was achieved through such moves as a trimming full-time equivalent hours and by re-assigning administrative costs that had been attributed to services shared by districts to services paid individually by districts.
“Those administrative costs can be applied either way,’ she said.
The goal is to continue to move more toward a financial model in which members pay less for shared services and pay only for the services that they purchase.
“All districts are paying less for the services they share,” Wernsing said.
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The decision to change the financial model was spurred when La Grange Elementary School District 102 gave a one-year notice of intent to withdraw from the organization.
The district dropped its proposed withdrawal after parents raised concerns and LADSE committed to changing how its financial model.
Brian Anderson, president of the District 102 Board, said he is pleased with the changes.
“We are looking forward to seeing all of the progress that LADSE is making with regards to their pay for services model,” he said. “Our desire is to continue our relationship with LADSE and (we) want to work with them on continuing our relationship.”
Wernsing said the assessments for member districts range from about $40,000 to $150,000.
She said LADSE will continue to work to lower member districts’ shared costs.
“I believe next year’s assessments will be lower,” she said.
Other elementary districts in LADSE include Western Springs 101, La Grange-Countryside 105, Highlands 106, Pleasantdale 107, Butler 53, Darien 61, Gower 62 and La Grange Park/Brookfield 95.
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