Ark Valley News - District may take over special-ed

District may take over special-ed
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: December 12, 2019

Calling it "the right thing to do" and one of the biggest decisions it has made in the past several years, the Valley Center school board took a large step this week toward dissolving the nine-district special-education cooperative and bringing its services in-house.

The board approved a resolution Dec. 9 that asks the state board of education to review the request.

If approved by the state, the move would create three special-education cooperatives officially starting in the summer of 2021, with Valley Center controlling services for itself as well as Burrton and Sedgwick.

The other cooperatives would be based in Goddard (with Clearwater, Cheney and Conway Springs) and Maize (with Renwick).

"We need to move forward, especially since we're going to be hosting the one up north here," said board President Brad Barbour. "I think it would be good if we set the standard and got this started tonight. … I'm really looking forward to our administrators being able to manage the people working for (the cooperative). … I know all of our administrators want the ability to be over them. … To me it's the right thing to do. Let's just do it and be done with it."

The resolution must be approved by at least four of the nine affected districts to move forward. The issue has been discussed for several months.

Officials said bringing the services closer to home would benefit students as well as special-education teachers and paraeducators.

The Valley Center district has been part of the Sedgwick County Area Educational Services Interlocal Cooperative based in Goddard for several years. The cooperative hires and supervises special-education staff. The school district pays the cooperative.

In 2019-20, Valley Center budgeted $5.5 million for special education. Of that number, nearly $4 million will be given to the interlocal cooperative.

The newly formed organization in Valley Center would be called the Ark Valley Special Education Cooperative.

Superintendent Cory Gibson said special-education staff would be placed on the same pay grid and would receive the same benefits as regular-education employees. A total of 170 special-education employees work in Valley Center. The district currently has 397 employees, including administrators and directors.

The cooperative would be governed by a board made up of Valley Center, Burrton and Sedgwick board members and superintendents, with major decisions made by the Valley Center school board

If approved, the transition will begin in 2020.

In other business Dec. 9, the board:

•Approved gifts of $500 from Riverlawn Christian Church for Hornets' Hanger at the intermediate school; $500 from the Nancy Kerr Trust to the general band fund; two blenders from an anonymous donor to the middle school FACS class; $150 from Kansas Learning Center for Health to bus first-graders at West to the learning center; and $30 from the McDonald family for food accounts at the intermediate school and the middle school.

•Approved the disposal of equipment at the middle school with the old Hornet logo.

•Approved the district's participation in a Kansas Technical System Network project to train administrators and teachers.

•Approved the district calendar for 2020-21, which is similar to the 2019-20 calendar. The only change is a professional development day was moved to Nov. 2. It was Nov. 1 this year.

•Approved a day off for Valley Center High School students on Feb. 21, which will allow the school to host 5A west regional wrestling.