More Districts Plan to Leave Special Education Cooperative (IL)
July 6, 2010
Two more districts have joined Golf Elementary School District 67 in the process of withdrawing from the Niles Township District for Special Education 807, submitting letters stating their intent to pull out in two years.
East Prairie Elementary District 73 in Skokie and Culver Elementary District 71 in Niles both submitted letters in late June.
However, NTDSE officials say that two-year delay will allow them to convince the districts that the NTDSE is the best option for special education students.
Under the NTSDE agreement, any district that plans to withdraw must provide two years notice.
Golf Elementary School District 67 in Morton Grove submitted a letter a year ago stating its intention to withdraw. The district is looking at options for teaching special education students.
Two more districts submitted letters last month to start the clock on the two-year notification period.
In addition to providing the cooperative with advance notice, the two-year delay is designed to give districts that are pulling out time to prepare plans for educating their students and documentation for the Illinois State Board of Education.
"NTDSE has fabulous services. It has nothing to do with them," said Amy Kruppe, District 71 superintendent. "It has to do with looking at the best way to serve students and deal with the financial considerations as well."
Kruppe was executive director and superintendent of the special education district before joining District 71.
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The issue came up in District 67 after the nine member districts learned that the NTDSE had not charged them enough during 2009. For Distinct 67, it meant coming up with about $24,000 that the financially-strapped district did not budget. Former Superintendent Greg Buchanan said that after a prompt review of the program, the district could save money by teaching the students rather than paying NTDSE.
"NTDSE has provided quality service for our students," Buchanan said at the time. "I’m sure we’ll be able to provide that as well."
District 807 Superintendent Tarin Kendrick said the districts that plan to pull out will have to show the Illinois State Board of Education that they can properly provide services to their special education students.
But she said she is not convinced that District 67 has accurately compared costs of providing services in the district and through NTSDSE. "I have some concerns about the accuracy of their data," she said.
She said, even if the three elementary districts can provide needed services to their special needs students, NTDSE is able to provide those services at a lower cost.
"You still have to serve the students. I would say that we are able to provide the economies of scale," Kendrick said.
Gary Zabilka, superintendent of Park View District 70, said that is one reason his school board has not considered withdrawing from the cooperative. "As far as our district goes, we still see it as cost effective," Zabilka said.
In addition, he said, Park View does not have space for any self-contained special education classrooms. &quo t;We don’t have any extra space available," he said.
Zabilka said districts pay a combination of assessments, one based on the number of students in the district, one based on the number of students enrolled in the special education district and a third for maintaining Molloy School in Morton Grove, which is operated by NTDSE for students who need the self-contained school environment.
"The cost has been going up, but the cost of everything has been going up," Zabilka said. He noted that District 70 spent about $800,000 for NTDSE costs last year for about 30 students.
He said that districts that pull out will have to spend money to educate their special education students.
"They still have to find a way to serve their special needs kids. That’s going to cost them significant money," Zabilka said.
Kruppe noted that districts already have started teaching their preschool special education students in house. She said that even if District 71 has to hire teachers, the cost will be less than membership in District 807.
Also, she said, the district has to pay an annual fee to NTDSE whether it has any students enrolled or not.
She said that next school year the district does not expect to have any special education students in the NTDSE. However, because of the general assessment and building costs her district will still have to pay about $140,000 to District 807.
"That’s with no kids," she said.
If the three districts do pull out it will not be the first time a district has withdrawn from the cooperative.
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Niles Township High School District 219 voted to withdraw in 2003 and went through with it two years later, despite efforts by NTDSE officials to convince them to remain. That left just the nine elementary districts in Niles Township as members.
Kendrick said she plans to try and convince officials in Districts 67, 71 and 73 to remain.
"We all want to see how we can serve the students," Kendrick said. "We all want to see how we can do it."
Kruppe said she is open to further discussions with the NTDSE.
"We will talk. We’ll work together," Kruppe said.
But even if District 71 does pull out, Kruppe said it will not mean the demise of the special education district. "The cooperative will survive with or without District 71," she said.