Jacksonville School District 117 is currently in crisis of having enough special education space.
Superintendent Steve Ptacek told the Board of Education last night that Director of Student Services and Special Education Barbie Davidsmeyer had identified the need for 7 additional Special Education classrooms by next school year. The district also has the need to hire 16 fully licensed Special Education teachers, according to its most recent teacher vacancy report. Those 16 spots are currently being filled by long-term substitutes.
Ptacek says he’s recently perused the district’s buildings and has identified spaces at Lincoln, North, and South Elementary schools where some extra classrooms could be built. He says the idea of a new school building is back on the table – but the money to pay for either the classrooms or the new school is the biggest question.
Ptacek says he’s meeting today with the District’s design engineer Jamie Cosgriff to discuss the options: “We’re going to look at different options for expanding classroom space for our special educations needs that are growing. We’re also going to talk about the concept of building a brand new elementary [building], and trying to get a cost idea of whether or not we’re going to have enough money for the big project or whether or not we have to talk about expansion across the district to answer to our growing special education need.”
Ptacek says that the brand new facility, if that’s the road that is ultimately chosen, will be built in a way so that expansion could happen in the distant future.
Ptacek says that the large cohort of special education students isn’t just a local phenomena but something that is hitting districts statewide and possibly nationwide. He believes that the lack of special education space and special education teachers across the state will force local school districts, especially smaller districts throughout the state, to seriously consider consolidation plans because they won’t have enough teachers to fulfill the needs of their students.