District sets open enrollment limits

The Cedar Grove-Belgium School Board will accept regular education students in all grades through the state’s open enrollment program for next school year, but it again put limits on its special education enrollment, since the staff is already at or over capacity in most grades.

Director of Special Education Tamara O’Keefe told the School Board this month that the district has openings in ninth and 12th grade for special education students. Capacity is 13 students with a projected enrollment of 10 next year.

The rest of the grades are full, including the Early Childhood program, which is projected to have 23 students with a capacity of 18. Early Childhood speech has a capacity of 23 and serves 36 students, and middle and high school speech serves 24 students with a capacity of 19, O’Keefe said in a report to the board.

Open enrollment is a statewide program that allows students to attend school districts in which they do not live. Districts may limit how many seats are available in each grade by citing various factors, including space constraints.

Supt. Jeanne Courneene provided the board with a new emergency rule that the state Department of Public Instruction approved in December clarifying open enrollment space limits. The district received the document from DPI hours before the Jan. 9 School Board meeting.

The rule says school boards may not approve open enrollment applications for students in a grade when they have limited space available in the next grade or special education service. For instance, if ninth-grade seats aren’t available, eighth-grade applicants can’t be accepted.

Board member Dan Bruhn said he wished fellow board member Laura Schieffer, director of special education and pupil services for the Hartford Jt. 1 School District, was in attendance because she argues that the district closes its special education program.

“We’re not closing special ed. We have openings in ninth and 12th grade,” O’Keefe said.

“The reality is special ed is supposed to be special. It’s supposed to be specialized services for students. If you made those classes so big, it’s not special anymore because you can’t deliver the service to those students. That’s the reason for closing, to be make sure we can provide appropriate services.”

O’Keefe said she uses the open enrollment model that is recommended by DPI lawyers. Hartford, she said, uses a different model.

The board approved O’Keefe’s recommendation for open enrollment limits, 5-1, with Bruhn casting the dissenting vote.

Schieffer, who rarely misses meetings, did not attend because she was undergoing medical treatment.

The open enrollment application period runs from Feb. 4 through April 30.