The Knox Community School Board and the North Judson-San Pierre School Board heard an update on JESSE during their respective November meetings.
Knox Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart announced Plymouth School Corporation was going to vote during their board meeting that night to withdraw from the JESSE program. He added 25 percent of the program is funded by Plymouth and the other eight current schools in the co-op would see a 10 to 11 percent increase.
Dr. Reichhart mentioned from his conversations with the Superintendent at Plymouth, he believed they would in fact move forward in removing from the JESSE cooperative. Due to the agreement, a school wanting to withdraw must let JESSE know 18 months in advance. The earliest Plymouth could withdraw is for the 2024-2025 school year.
North Judson-San Pierre Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin told WKVI News Plymouth School Corporation approved withdrawing themselves from the cooperative. She added a meeting has been scheduled with the remaining eight schools in the co-op along with JESSE Board members today and next Monday, November 21. She said from these meetings the remaining schools will discuss potential options they can do to keep their special needs programs available.
Both Dr. Reichhart and Dr. Zupin mentioned a newly combined partnership with other school corporations could be an option. In Knox’s board meeting, Dr. Reichhart said it is hard to find occupational and physical therapists and that sharing one could be of great service to several schools.
Dr. Zupin mentioned North Judson-San Pierre could consider hiring their own special education teacher. The last option would be to stay in the JESSE program and pay the 10 to 11 percent increase Dr. Reichhart mentioned.
These options are planned to be discussed today and next week.
Both school boards plan to discuss this during their December board meetings. If they decide to withdraw from JESSE, they will need to make a decision by January 1, 2023 if they want to withdraw at the same time as Plymouth.
