At a recent John Glenn School Board meeting, board members voted in favor of ratifying their decision to withdraw from the JESSE Cooperative.
Over the years, nine schools have shared the expenses in a special education program that provided administration, psychological services, transition programming, therapy services, counseling, child count, coordination of Special Education services and more.
Plymouth Community School Corporation served as the administrative corporation for JESSE. They were the first to announce that they would be leaving the JESSE Co-op which in turn, created a domino effect of schools disbanding from the program.
“With the growth of schools over time as well as the growth in school budgets, the benefits of the Cooperative have faded away,” stated Superintendent Christopher Winchell.
The JESSE Co-op will still be in effect until June 30, 2024. At that time, the John Glenn School Corporation will have to decide whether to run their own program, in which they anticipate the need for additional staffing and higher operational costs. The additional staff and higher operational costs would be offset by monies saved from leaving the JESSE program.
John Glenn School Corporation already partners with Union-North United on several programs, so there are options to continue to partner with them on special needs services.
John Glenn School Board member, Robert Borlik, made a motion to approve of the ratification on their decision to withdraw from JESSE and the motion passed unanimously.
