Special education teachers in the Oregon-Davis school district are now being employed by the school itself instead of the Joint Educational Services in Special Education cooperative.
The switch is in response to a reorganization of the cooperative. Now being employed by O.D. are Heidi Temme, Robert Kleindeinst, and Roberta Salyer.
The announcement was made by Superintendent Dr. Steve Disney.
The Spotlight on Success feature of the recent Knox Community School Board meeting included the preschool program. Superintendent A.J. Gappa talks about the presentation.
“We host a preschool program that is part of J.E.S.S.E. Mrs. Suseland invited in four students, two from the morning class and two from the afternoon class, and they showed the Board a beaver lodge that they had built in class as a replica in their study of wild animals. They also showed the Board some of the drawings that they had done, talked about what they do in class, and just gave an overview of how the class operates.”
During the last Knox Community School Board meeting, Superintendent A.J. Gappa and Bob Wise from the J.E.S.S.E. Co-op presented the board with the J.E.S.S.E. reorganization recommendation that moves the organization from a Co-op to a Localized Educational Agency, or LEA. Gappa tells us what that information entails.
“That information includes students being where they’re going to be with as little transport as possible. Next year, most of the teachers will become employees of the local corporations instead of J.E.S.S.E. employees. The Board did approve, on their part, the reorganization. It also has to go to the other eight boards of the corporation members and we will move forward with that reorganization,” stated Gappa.
Plymouth School Corporation will remain the fiscal agent while Knox will be the main site for the Starke County schools. North Judson-San Pierre and Oregon-Davis will be in a group with Knox and can share services, if needed. The North Judson-San Pierre School Board has also approved the proposed recommendations.
North White School Corporation officials sent a request to the West Central School Corporation be a member of West Central’s joint services Co-op for special education services. According to Superintendent Charles Mellon, that request was discussed by the school board officials last week.
The North Judson-San Pierre School Board members approved J.E.S.S.E reorganization at their recent meeting. Superintendent Lynn Johnson says this will allow special education teachers to be able to teach special education students at the school instead of the students traveling to take classes.
The J.E.S.S.E. Cooperative is reorganizing to where all schools in the Cooperative will house their own services and classes for Special Education students. The North Judson-San Pierre School Board discussed that issue during their meeting and Superintendent Lynn Johnson relays that information.
“We are moving more services into our school district then we’ll have a service district comprised of Starke County – Knox, Oregon-Davis and North Judson-San Pierre,” said Mrs. Johnson. “This year is a transitional year and beginning July 1st most of our special education employees will become North Judson-San Pierre employees. Right now this is a transitional year. We are in the process of reorganizing and it’s an ongoing process this year.”
