District 204 Board Approves LADSE Withdrawal Request From Hinsdale

The Lyons Township District 204 Board of Education approved a request from Hinsdale District 181 to withdraw from .

The LT board unanimously supported the request after being assured by LADSE officials the withdrawal would not hinder services to their students or add additional financial burden to the school district. Mark Pera, president of LT District 204, said finances was his chief concern over Hinsdale’s request.

LADSE director James Surber told Pera and other board members that the Hinsdale school district is large enough and solvent enough to provide adequate care for its students with special education needs. Hinsdale began the process to leave LADSE in November.

“We’re always sorry to hear someone wants to leave our group, but they are capable of providing those services on their own,” Surber said.

Surber said Hinsdale’s withdrawal from the cooperative means a loss of about $1.2 million, including $700,000 in federal monies, from the LADSE budget.  However, Surber said that money is equivalent to what Hinsdale contributes. He said the loss of the money means there will be some cut in staff, but those staff members were hired to handle Hinsdale 181’s needs. He said none of the staff who will be cut were attached to any programs in Lyons.

“Some services may be hindered in the short run, but we will still be able to provide quality services to the district,” Surber said.

For nearly a year the Hinsdale school district has been working on a plan to provide necessary services to special education students on their own, said Pamela Kazee, assistant superintendent for Hinsdale 181. She said her district has a $500,000 deficit this fiscal year and is projecting a deficit of $1.5 million in 2012. She said being able to provide services on their own will help the district save money, although she did not say how much.

“This is about providing services that meet our needs. For the last year we have been building an infrastructure of our own which is allowing us to provide our own services,” Kazee said. “As we have added staff of our own we have used LADSE less and less.”

Kazee was quick to praise the services LADSE provides. She said the organization does a wonderful job helping with special needs students.

LADSE is a cooperative organization that works with area school districts to provide services for students with special education needs. LADSE has been serving 17 school districts within Cook and DuPage counties for 20 years.

With the District 204 approval, Hinsdale 181 is within one vote of being able to leave LADSE. Kazee said LADSE bylaws require the approval of a majority of members before a member can leave the organization. She said Hinsdale has received approval from seven Cook County school districts as well as the DuPage County Regional Board of Education. Three Cook County districts opposed their withdrawal plan. Kazee said they must win approval from one of three remaining LADSE members. If approval does not come Kazee said she does not know what Hinsdale 181’s plans will be.

“We will have to consult with our attorneys and see what we can do,” she said.

In addition to approving the Hinsdale withdrawal, the LT board also approved a plan to link the south campus of the high school to Western Springs’ fiber optics project. Ed Tennant, director of technology, said joining with that network will boost the school’s Internet capabilities by 66 percent. The project is expected to cost $57,287 for development and installation. The district will pay $2,000 per month for service.

Tennant said Internet traffic from the north campus will be routed through the south campus to increase capabilities there as well.

“This will be good for us because we’ve had to restrict a lot of Internet services because of our lack of bandwidth,” Tennant said.