By Kim Hyatt

Owatonna People’s Press

OWATONNA — Plans for a special education cooperative between Owatonna, Albert Lea, Austin, Faribault and Northfield school districts have been scrapped.

“At this point to make a cooperative work, everyone has to be on the same page. We don’t have commitment on part of all five,” said Northfield Superintendent Chris Richardson.

In May, the five school districts began discussing a co-op dubbed the Southeast Minnesota Special Education Cooperative, or SEMSEC, in hopes of opening next fall.

In early June, the Austin Public Schools Board approved joining the cooperative. APS Director of Special Services Sheryl Wilrodt told the Herald in June about four Austin students would have been recommended for the special programming, which would help lower-functioning students with aggressive behaviors, some who are non-verbal, and have other needs.

Recently, the Minnesota Department of Education gave approval of the co-op and with that a district number. But according to Richardson, that is suspended, though “it does leave the door open in the future to begin that process again if at some time we do have that full commitment,” he said.

At the Owatonna school board meeting on Monday, the board was still having discussions about moving forward with SEMSEC. In weeks prior, Owatonna was looking at leasing space for SEMSEC at the old Wal-Mart building off Hoffman Drive.

The build-out costs of that space is what deterred some districts from opting into a co-op in that they wanted to be prorated and only pay for certain programming utilized by their students rather than dividing the costs equally.

“Some believed it would only be appropriate to pay for a portion of the lease cost related to programs they currently have students in,” Richardson said. “Our hope was all of us would share in terms of leased cost of the building and build-out costs.”

He added the “concept of cooperative is joint sacrifice.”

Faribault Superintendent Todd Sesker said the owner of the Wal-Mart building, Retrofit Companies, was asking $40,000 per district upfront to commit to the building project. Everything inside to make specialized learning spaces such as furniture would be an additional $120,000 per district and the lease levy would be $160,000 per year per district.

“Biggest take away when we start talking about ideas like that, the concept sounds good but the devil is in the details. In this case with five different school districts…it was not prudent or practical to move forward at this time,” said Tom Sager, director of finance and operations for the Owatonna school district.

Northfield and Faribault will continue with their partnership through the Cannon River Education Center located in Faribault. But due to state statute changes, that agreement is ending and the districts will work out how to house shared programs for special education students.

Sager, along with the two superintendents, mentioned that Albert Lea and Austin could be looking into partnerships for special education programming. Representatives from those two districts were unavailable for comment.

“I still think it would be a good situation for the districts,” Sesker said.

For Owatonna, students with high behavioral and learning needs who would’ve gone to SEMSEC starting in 2016 will remain a part of current Actions programs.

There is a high school Actions program that is housed in the same space off Vine Street with the Alternative Learning Center (ALC), but the lease for that space expires next year and the owner has found other parties interested.

Referendum plans are to move Vine Street programs along with early childhood programming to Washington Elementary School in the fall of 2018 once the space is vacated of elementary students and renovated — leaving ALC and Actions in a two-year limbo.

“In the meantime, [we’re] looking for different spaces to accommodate those needs,” Sager said, adding the district would like to keep the programs downtown because of transportation — a lot of students walk or bike to school — and established relationships with downtown businesses.

Owatonna opted into a new lease agreement for an elementary Actions program off Landmark Drive in January 2015 for $2,125 per month. Now they are moving the program to leased classroom space at St. John Lutheran Church beginning Aug. 15.

—Distributed by the Associated Press. Austin Daily Herald Jenae Hackensmith contributed to this report.