Last week’s decision by the Chitham ISD Board of Directors to withdraw from the North Lamar ISD Special Education Cooperative at the end of the school year prompts the dissolution of the cooperative.
This is the news that North Lamar ISD Superintendent Kelly Stewart brought to the Board early Monday morning, including an account of the events leading up to the Chitham Board’s decision.
Mr. Stewart explained that he met with the Chitham and Prairieland superintendents on October 13 and recommended that the districts provide their own programs but continue the North Lamar Cooperative by sharing services. did.
“Our enrollment is increasing, and when we move into a new elementary school, we don’t have room to accommodate co-op students from other districts,” Stewart said. We encouraged the continuation of the co-op by sharing, but Chisum and Prairiland ended up housing their own students.”
On Oct. 25, Stewart said he received notice from Chitham Superintendent Tommy Scharaire that his board had decided on Oct. 24 to withdraw from the cooperative at the end of the 2022-23 school year. I got
“The withdrawal of a member district means the dissolution of the cooperative,” Stewart said. “We understand that the Chisum ISD will handle its own special education from his 2023-24 school year and the Prairland ISD will join another cooperative.”
Stewart said he wanted to clarify what led to Chitham’s decision in The Paris News report released after Chitham’s board meeting.
“I noticed that the Paris News recommended dissolving the co-op, so I wanted to share it this morning, but it didn’t,” Stewart said. We encouraged North Lamar to continue serving these students.”
Going forward, Stewart said he will ask Co-op Director Karen Smith to prepare a list of all the co-op’s assets and liabilities, including real estate, equipment, furniture and fixed assets.
“Once we know what the cooperatives and individual members own, North Lamar has 60%, Chitham 23% and Prairielands 17%, based on special education enrollment in all three districts. We split the assets by percentage,” Stewart said. “We need to consider our upcoming staffing and staffing requirements and will pass those recommendations on to you for action. I just wanted to let you know that we are moving forward.”
Among other actions at Monday’s meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to select Carrollton’s Lone Star Furniture as the new primary school furniture purchaser and to appoint a superintendent to negotiate and execute the necessary contracts. Did.
https://theparisnews.com/news/article_bdff8156-5a08-11ed-bec6-f37c58e55bae.html North Lamar Special Ed Co-op Disbanded | News
