Austin Public Schools will join with the Albert Lea School District to try to improve programming for students with more severe special needs.

The Austin Public Schools Board unanimously voted to partner with Albert Lea at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening after a partnership with four other school districts fell through earlier this year.

The plan is to form the new cooperative with Albert Lea Public Schools, which would be called Austin Albert Lea Area Special Education Cooperative, to provide specialized services and programs for students in the Setting For Emotional Behavioral Disorder and Students with Unique Needs (SUN) programs.

Albert Lea’s board has discussed the plan and could vote later this month. If Albert Lea also approves it, the focus will shift to finding a site before the program can kickoff next school year.

“We’re negotiating on a facility as we speak,” Finance and Operations Director Mark Stotts said. “Hopefully within the next month we’ll know for certain if we’re going to actually be able to. We’re looking at purchasing a facility, doing renovations and then doing it for next fall.”

The districts are currently looking into the Corcoran Center in Austin, but negotiations are still ongoing and nothing is finalized.

“The nice thing is the facility for us would be located in Austin, which means our kids get to stay in the community,” he said.

In May, five school districts began discussing a co-op dubbed the Southeast Minnesota Special Education Cooperative, or SEMSEC, in hopes of opening next fall. The Austin Public Schools Board approved joining the cooperative in June that would have included the public schools in Albert Lea, Owatonna, Faribault and Northfield to make a separate school, which could have been located in Owatonna, for children who’s needs aren’t currently being met as efficiently as possible. But that cooperative fell through in August. APS Director of Special Services Sheryl Willrodt, Stotts and other APS school leaders have worked with Albert Lea school leaders in hopes to create the two-district co-op.

Wilrodt previously said about four Austin students would be recommended for the special programming, which will help lower-functioning students with aggressive behaviors, some who are non-verbal, and have other needs. The new co-op would be in a separate building owned by the co-op, and thus equally co-owned by the Austin and Albert Lea schools. This would also help free up space in the Austin High School Annex building currently used for the programming.

Willrodt pointed out in larger districts, such as in the Twin Cities, there’s a specific school to cater to the needs of those students. Since Austin only has a handful of students, there is not a school set up for that — a problem many other Minnesota districts also face.

The district aims to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. Some are met in the general education classrooms, while others are occasionally pulled out for support services, some require a separate classroom and others finally to a separate school.

The district has focused on providing either homebound instruction or creating a separate classroom staffed with paraprofessionals, with the teacher rotating in. Willrodt said the programming the district is able to provide currently doesn’t meet the students’ needs as well as the cooperative could, and it’s not as efficient as going to a program with the cooperative could be. There is also a high burnout for teachers who do this instruction, since they are working alone for much of the day without other teachers and staff to gain support from, which is another issue the cooperative could address.

The cooperative would have a representative from both the Austin Public Schools Board and the Albert Lea Public Schools Board, as well as the superintendent from both districts, special services directors from both districts and special education cooperative directors from each districts.