Schools

Lake Forest, Lake Bluff School Districts, NSSED Finding Common Ground; Talk of Separation Has Changed to Working Together

Financial issues between the two appear to be moving in the right direction.

Just a few months ago, the three school districts serving Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and Knollwood students and the North Suburban Special Education District (NSSED) seemed to be moving in opposite directions.

Tuesday night, officials from , and told a small group of parents that progress has been made in bridging the gap between the two entities during a meeting at the high school's west campus.

A major part of that gap appeared to be money. In a previous story on , Julie Cooley, assistant superintendent of student services for Districts 67 and 115, said the potential savings of withdrawing from NSSED and moving special education services in-house was $400,000.

Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Bluffwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However, in recent discussions with NSSED, Cooley said that number has been reduced but couldn’t say by how much.

“We don’t know that yet,” Cooley said. “But the whole conversation has changed from when we last met in January. The whole conversation now is about how we can get as close to each other as possible rather than pulling apart.”

Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Bluffwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Dr. Harry Griffith, superintendent of School Districts 67 and 115, agreed that NSSED heard the message of controlling costs at a time when school districts are facing uncertain financial times.

“NSSED is being very interested in addressing the money issue,” Griffith said.

School District 65 Superintendent Dr. John Asplund said he has been encouraged by the level of cooperation from NSSED.

“I feel better about the path we’re on than I did before,” Asplund said. “Going forward, we will be walking with NSSED. The relationship may change in some shape or form.”

Karen Noonan, director of programs and support services for NSSED, said their finance committee is working with Cooley. “We’re looking at pooling resources in a different way,” Noonan said.

Noonan commended the three districts for “being ahead of the game in saying we need to act on this. We value our partnership and we know our relationship is only as good as we adapt to changes.”

Those changes have included all three districts taking a greater role in providing their own special education services. Griffith indicated over time, the three districts have replicated the infrastructure that NSSED provides including hiring more staff.

But the tone now is to maintain the relationship with NSSED, but that a definitive answer as to what that relationship will look like is not going to be determined before the end of the school year. That appeared to alleviate parents’ fears that changes would impact their children as early as next fall.

“The process will be evolving as we go along,” Asplund said.

Added Griffith, “I am quite optimistic that the outcome will be just as positive as it is now, and that the fundamental relationship with NSSED will remain the same.”

As part of this process, the school districts created a parent advisory board which has provided input on programs in sorting out the roles of  NSSED and the school districts. Currently the advisory board is looking at parent responses to a survey it posted online. According to Anne Dunn, director of student services for District 67 who is working with the advisory board, 130 surveys were returned.

The parent advisory board has only met three times so far, but posts minutes from its meetings and has created an FAQ for parents to use on the district website.

Griffith said another meeting with parents to update the school districts’ relationship with NSSED will be held in the fall.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here