Spirit of cooperation
When the purpose of your existence is meeting the special education needs of Marion County's most needy children, there's no room for your director or your board to make decisions about who will be served based on petty distinctions, such as that child's city of residency.
Which is why we were glad to hear about the change of attitude at the Marion County Special Education Cooperative.
Director Chris Cesar was faced with a real dilemma after losing two of the co-op's three speech pathologists.
In order to keep the co-op's lone speech pathologist from quitting due to overwork, his solution was to have her to continue service at Marion schools, leaving the rest of the children in the county in need of speech services unserved until the two vacant positions could be filled.
But USD 410 Superintendent Gordon Mohn disagreed with Cesar's stopgap solution, saying that the children with the most need for speech therapy should have priority, regardless of where they live.
At the USD 410 board of education meeting Aug. 14, Mohn told board members about his disagreement with Cesar.
The usually soft-spoken, Mohn said, "I don't think that's the spirit of a cooperative. I don't think that's how it ought to work. And I would think that other members of this co-op who don't get the same services that everyone else does would be very vocal when they don't get served."
The school board voted to give Debbie Geis, who represents Hillsboro USD 410 on the co-op board, a letter of concern to the special education board.
Geis delivered the letter at Monday's meeting.
We were happy to learn that the issue of who will be served was resolved at that meeting, without the need for further pressure from USD 410.
The director informed the board that after further consideration, the co-op's speech pathologist, Paula Barta, would be able to provide services at Hillsboro Head Start for nine children.
If cooperatives fail, it's usually because of a poor selection of directors, or allowing the formation of cliques and special interest groups within the cooperative.
We hope that a spirit of cooperation will continue to prevail as the cooperative resolves other difficult issues down the road.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
