Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
At the New Rockford-Sheyenne school board meeting on Monday, Nov. 15, a motion was carried to delay consideration on a vote to withdraw from the East Central Center for Exceptional Children Special Education Unit (East Central) until February of 2022.
However, if NR-S is to have their proposed withdrawal from East Central effective for the 2022-23 school year, they will need to make their decision a bit earlier.
According to East Central’s board policy, a school district wishing to withdraw from East Central before the upcoming school year must officially notify East Central of their intention to withdraw before January 1. In other words, unless the NR-S school board holds a vote yet this month, they’ll remain members of East Central for at least another year.
When the motion was made to table the vote, the policy documents posted on East Central’s website stated that the deadline for a school district’s withdrawal was March 1. However, according to East Central Director Ashly Wolsky, the deadline for withdrawal was changed to January 1 last winter. The website has now been corrected to show the updated deadline.
Whether or not the NR-S board will move up their vote is unclear. In an email response to the Transcript on Tuesday, NR-S Superintendent Jill Louters wrote, “The board has not made a decision regarding how or when any decision making will occur regarding a potential withdrawal from the East Central Cooperative. All stakeholder feedback will be considered when making this decision.”
At a short-notice meeting between board members of East Central and NR-S on Monday, Nov. 22, school board vice president Mike Jacobson acknowledged the January 1 deadline, but no plans were discussed to reschedule the vote.
East Central board president Jenna Helseth and Pingree-Buchanan (P-B) Superintendent Robert Toso also attended the meeting, where they responded to a number of questions from Jacobson, and NR-S school board member Patti Larson.
Despite relatively high tensions around the community surrounding the proposal to leave East Central, the roughly 45-minute meeting was cordial and informative. Discussions largely entailed salaries, staffing decisions and contracts, but the strained business relationship between NR-S and East Central was also a point of discussion.
Both parties agreed that the arrangement had turned sour long before the arrival of East Central Director Ashly Wolsky, and that it would be a tough hurdle to overcome, should NR-S retain East Central’s services.
“When things get as ugly as they’ve gotten, I believe everybody bears responsibility,” said Jacobson at the meeting. “And how we fix this going forward, I don’t know the answer to that, I really don’t. But I know that it’s very destructive, it's very disruptive to staff members, and it has cost a lot of people a lot of time ... and I’ve said that very openly to numerous people, including the NR-S administration.”
East Central board president Jenna Helseth added, “This was a problem before our current director ... and so what is the constant? What’s the constant of this problem that needs to be fixed now? ... That’s, I guess, the question.” When the NR-S board last entertained special education alternatives (in 2018), Denise Brandvold was the director of East Central.
The possibility of utilizing a mediator was briefly brought up during the Nov. 15 school board meeting, and Toso expressed a desire to explore that route during the Nov. 22 meeting as well.
“We’ve talked about trying [mediation], or something along those lines, between the superintendent [of NR-S] and the executive director [of East Central] ... it would be a little bit expensive, but it might be worth it,” said Toso.
“I would suspect that the state school board association would have someone who would be willing to come in or at least have names,” Toso added. “I know of individuals who might be able to help with something like this, that have a lot of experience with management and boards.”
Jacobson responded by saying he would convey Toso’s message to the rest of the NR-S school board.
Toso also expressed that he has a vested interest in seeing the NR-S/East Central business relationship improve, as their dissolution would likely increase the special education costs for East Central’s remaining school districts. East Central Director Ashly Wolsky told the Transcript that two budgets for the 2022-23 school year are being prepared, one with NR-S’s membership and one without.
Jacobson told Toso and Helseth that he is still considering all options, and added that the potential impact on East Central’s remaining school districts and their students with special needs are weighing heavily on his mind. “This has probably been the hardest decision that I’ve ever experienced on the board,” he said.
Regardless, the NR-S school board needs to decide whether to act quickly in favor of a dissolution, or take their time and continue the discussion for another year.
The next regular NR-S school board meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 13.
