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School partnerships offer food for thought
(by Sue Hoffman - March 18, 2009)
School partnerships offer food for thought
By SUE HOFFMAN
West Geauga School Board member Kathy Leavenworth said the idea of partnerships with other school districts for facilities and services recently caught the attention of U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Bainbridge, in Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Leavenworth, now in her 30th year on the school board, was in the capital for three days last month as a delegate to the National School Boards Association Federal Relations Network Conference. At the conference, school board members from across the country learned in-depth information about legislative issues and lobbied their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill.
This year's conference zeroed in on the stimulus package. "Everyone was amazed how much was going into education," Ms. Leavenworth said. "However, local school districts don't know yet what we're going to get."
Delegates lobbied for amendments to No Child Left Behind, increased federal funding for special education and early childhood education, reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and ending funding of school vouchers.
Ms. Leavenworth said special education costs the West Geauga District some $3.5 million a year. When Congress first passed IDEA in the 1970s, it promised it would be funded at the 40 percent level, she said. "For over 25 years it was not funded above 10 percent," and funding was only increased to 17 percent or 18 percent in the last few years, she said.
"As with No Child Left Behind, government legislates a mandate, but the funding doesn't come along with it. Every local district has to make it up out of their general fund."
In addition, Ms. Leavenworth, an annual conference delegate for some 15 years, had local goals she wanted to discuss, including partnerships.
The West Geauga School District has been working with the Metzenbaum Center in Chester on a new transportation facility, Ms. Leavenworth said.
"Our transportation department has been working out of a building at the old Russell School. We've been talking about building a new facility for a long time. Metzenbaum was interested in building a joint facility, and we decided their property was the best site. It would have cost us more to put it on our school site and it would have had more impact on the community." She said the Metzenbaum site is away from the road and has less environmental impact.
When she went to Mr. LaTourette's office, she said, she expected to talk to one of his aides, but the congressman stopped in to the office after a trip. "He came in and talked with us," she said. When Ms. Leavenworth brought up the concept of joint projects, "he was interested," she said.
"We've been trying as much as we can to do joint projects." Once the transportation facility is constructed, the district would like to offer maintenance services to others, she said. "We're not only saving money by working with Metzenbaum, in another couple of years, we may be able to entice school districts and townships to come to us. It would be beneficial to both." Some money would come into the district and the services to other districts would be less expensive, she said.
She said the West Geauga School Board is also working with Cardinal School District and reaching out to others for a combined food-service program.
Ms. Leavenworth said state rules may obstruct plans for the food-service program. "Here we are trying to find ways to pinch every penny, and the state comes in and tells us we can't do it. We do everything we can -- join consortiums for buses and school supplies -- but there is only so far you can go. To have road blocks thrown in your way is not supportive," she said.
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