Cities will be asked to bid on special ed facility
Staff reporter
A consultant for Marion County Special Education Cooperative cut straight to the chase June 20 while discussing building options.
Dr. Kent Stewart of Manhattan was hired by the cooperative to conduct a feasibility study to address the educational needs of the nearly 600 students served by the cooperative.
At this point, Stewart has determined there are basically three cities within the county that could meet those needs — Hillsboro, Marion, and Peabody.
Stewart suggested, and the board agreed, that letters should be sent to those city councils to ask about economic development incentives available to the cooperative should all or part of the special education facilities be moved to those communities.
Cities could consider providing land, a building, utilities, or other incentives to the district. Stewart said the City of Manhattan has an economic development fund that was used for business development and wondered if other cities or entities have similar access to development money.
He also expressed his concern about pitting one community against the other in the race to capture the program.
Before discussion and making decisions regarding the letters and the most viable location for the cooperative, board members voiced concerns about the absence of the Marion-Florence board representative, Lyle Leppke. Members said they didn't want communication issues between the cooperative board and USD 408 because the district wasn't represented at monthly meetings.
Representatives from the other four school districts were in attendance at the noon meeting.
Cooperative director Chris Cezar was instructed to send a letter to USD 408 Superintendent Lee Leiker regarding their concerns and frustrations.
The board then returned to the subject at hand and discussed the possibility of services being split. CLASS could be in one location, OASIS in another, and the administration building in a third. However, Richard Drake, cooperative board chairman and representative of USD 411 Goessel, said having the administrative staff separated from the programs would cause problems.
Cezar said if the programs are split and operated separately from the location of the administration building, there would be more pressure for guidance and supervision by local administrators, but it was "do-able."
"We can separate the two programs," Cezar said, "but it would be harder to manage."
He added it would not be feasible to split the OASIS program.
Centre representative Clark Davis recalled the time when the cooperative was located in the Marion district.
"The responsibility was thrown on the administrator at the school," Davis recalled.
Doe Ann Hague, representative of USD 398 Peabody-Burns, said in her opinion the cooperative needed to be located near schools if students are to be integrated back to their regular class rooms, particularly those in OASIS.
She reiterated that this discussion and decision will not be based on facilities.
"For me, personally, it's educational opportunities, not the facilities," Hague said.
Davis said he had always considered the former AMPI building in Hillsboro as a good location for a special education facility but knows there are some structural problems that need to be addressed.
Deb Geis, representative of USD 410, asked when students are integrated back into the regular classroom, would it influence where the student would be placed if the facility was located on a school campus?
Cezar responded that each case was considered individually because sometimes it is in the best interest of the student to return him/her to the home district, other times it is not.
"If you're truly working for the child, it needs to be for the child's benefit," Hague said.
Another misconception is that the school district where the OASIS program is located could end up integrating all of the problem students but Cezar said that won't happen because students are not returned to the regular classroom until they're ready.
