The School District 166 board decided to move forward in setting up a Level lV Special Education Center as well as an Alternative Learning Center. At the Thursday, December 18 board meeting, Superintendent Beth Schwarz presented the board with a potential timeline and asked for ideas that could help raise funds to support this initiative. The board didn’t take any action on the proposal, but it will be brought forward for further review at upcoming meetings.
“This will put early childhood and special needs kids under one roof,” Schwarz said.
Schwarz said land near the bus garage might be a potential site for the center.
She said the school district lost $221,000 in 2013 because students had to leave the district to receive the help they needed. She also said that a new building (an estimated investment of $7 million) could be used for a daycare. Currently, she said, parents have a lot of trouble finding daycare for infants.
Who would use the Center?
As of now the school district has 60 preschool children and about 20 kids who would be eligible to go to the Alternative Learning Center, said Schwarz.
The board authorized Schwarz to look for money to secure a planning grant (for approximately $10,000), which would be used to hire an architect. Schwarz will also work with several organizations including the Iron Range Resources Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), McKnight Foundation, and Blandin Foundation etc. to secure funds and possibly seek a bond referendum.
Should enough money be found a tentative timeline calls for breaking ground spring of 2016 with a completion date of fall 2016 or 2017.
However, noted Schwarz, if money isn’t forthcoming, this will be set aside and reviewed at another time.
Bus route
A family who recently moved 1.7 miles up the Mineral Center Road in Grand Portage asked the district to provide bus service for their children. The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa had recently installed a turn around for a bus, they said, and it was the family’s belief that was all that was needed for the district to have a bus come up the road and transport their children to school.
But, said Superintendent Schwarz, 122 kids in the district must travel daily to get to a bus stop. One has to go 15 miles one way to catch a bus, she noted.
Due to the poor upkeep of the Mineral Center Road and long hill down to Highway 61, the bus driver for that route, William “Bill” Hackett, said if he was required to pick up the students, there would be times he wouldn’t dare drive the bus up the road due to snowy or icy road conditions. Hackett said he was the last bus driver to run the Mineral Center Road and he said he had several scares that made him wary of going up it again.
Anderson said it would be nice if everyone could get picked up at their house, but it was unrealistic to think the school district could get to everyone’s house given the far flung areas people in Cook County choose to live.
The board voted 4-0 not to provide bus service to the family who left the meeting very disappointed.
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