Morris Elementary Dist. 54: Board will opt out of some special ed co-op services

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Given the choice, Morris Grade School District 54 chooses to opt out of some Grundy County Special Education Cooperative services and keep others. The co-op is reorganizing, allowing its member school districts to opt out of some or all of the special education services it offers. The agency has asked school districts to let it know by Oct. 1 which services they will still need next year. After researching the subject, District 54 Superintendent Dr. Dennis Broniecki recommended the district's two schools - White Oak Elementary and Shabbona Middle School - opt out of using the co-op for its three speech teachers and seven cross-categorical teachers. Students who have more than one identification for special services, such as combinations of dyslexia, reading problems, and other learning problems, use cross-categorical teachers. The district will hire these positions itself beginning next school year, and the teachers will operate under the curriculum and educational guidelines of the district for the first time. The co-op's director of special education will still be responsible for supervision of the programs, however. The district is choosing to also opt out of using the co-op's instructional resource professionals. They are teachers who help students who are in mainstream classes, but are pulled out at different times of the day for extra help in certain areas. The district might also hire its own psychologist. Services District 54 plans to continue using from the co-op include vision and hearing professionals and autism specialists. The district has only one student with autism, and it doesn't need full-time vision and hearing professionals. Broniecki said that co-ops were most useful years ago, when school districts were smaller. There was only need for part-time special education specialists at each school then, he said, and co-ops formed to hire full-time professionals who would split their time between schools. Now, with districts like his own requiring the services of more than one full-time special education teacher, Broniecki said it is advantageous in several ways for the district to hire its own teachers. These teachers can now be on board with the district's educational curriculum, he said, giving a much better consistency of instruction. It will save money in the long-run, too, he said, but probably not much in the short term. Broniecki said that, although there have not been contract negotiations for the new teachers yet, the assumption is to keep them on at the same salaries they are currently making with the co-op. Those salaries might be higher than many regular ed teachers make, but it's possible to contract new special ed teachers with salaries more in line with the district's other teachers when the more-senior teachers retire. Many of the speech teachers have been with the district for several years, and both principals said they would like them to continue with the district. “These people have given us many years of service,” Broniecki said, “and our intention is to offer them the same salary and benefits.” The letter of intent will be sent to the co-op by Oct. 1, then the details will be worked out in the following months.