A building sitting vacant since 2009 may be the right place at the right time to solve two problems for the Collinsville School District.

The first problem is that children with special behavioral needs are sent out of district for their education. Until this school year, Collinsville did not have the staff or facilities to provide the services this group needs.

Money, of course, is the other problem. It is costly to transport 50-70 children to six different locations across the bi-state area using buses, vans, min-buses and taxis.

Bambi Bethel at Hollywood Heights Elementary School / Photo by Roger Starkey

After a year of studying the issue, a group of administrators and teachers determined the district could provide a better education at a better cost, Superintendent Robert Green said. The plan to re-open Hollywood Heights Elementary School and convert it into a special needs center was presented to the School Board, which unanimously approved it on May 20.

According to information provided to the School Board on May 14, the district currently spends about $18,107 per student for out-of-district services. This includes transportation and tuition costs. The estimated cost of providing the services in-district was about $12,051. The projected cost savings is $6,056 per student, per year.

The financial benefits of having a special needs center in the district are secondary to the educational benefits it will provide the students, Green said. “Saving the money, to me, is a bonus,” Green said. “Our job as educators is to focus on teaching our kids.”

Bambi Bethel, director of special education and related services, said it seems fitting for the district to provide these services.

“They’re our kids, They’re the students that live in our community,” Bethel said. “It only seems appropriate that we educate our kids.”

The Special Needs Center will open in two phases. The first phase, already underway, is to bring the first through fourth grade students with special behavioral needs back into the district. This group had been transported Shrewsbury, Bethel said.

A teacher, teacher’s aide, social worker and secretary were hired for the three children currently in the program. This group will work to establish the program and, if all goes according to plan, children from kindergarten to 12th grade will attend the school next year.

The children will be separated by age groups, with the older kids in a different area of the building, Bethel said. Lunch schedules will also be staggered to ensure the children are always in an appropriate social environment.

Bethel said the goal of the program is to reduce significantly the number of children transported out of district and to not only provide service to kids locally, but provide a curriculum in a setting conducive to meet their needs.

The State of Illinois and the Federal Government provide funding to the district to care for children with special behavioral needs, Green said. The federal government has not been meeting all of its obligations, so the deficit is closed using local tax money. It is the local tax dollars that Green believes will be saved by creating the program at the Hollywood Heights Elementary School.

Collinsville’s approach to educating children with behavioral needs was not unique. “There was a trend where districts would farm out kids with this kind of exceptionality,” Green said. “We feel we can do a better job for our kids.”