The police department that serves the Hollywood Heights Special Needs Center, is not Caseyville’s, which is two miles away, but rather the St. Clair County Sheriff’s department nine miles south in Belleville.

Collinsville School Board / Photo by Roger Starkey

The school, formerly an elementary school, recently re-opened as a special needs center, is currently in unincorporated St. Clair County, which means it is not in the Caseyville Police Department’s jurisdiction. The Collinsville Unit 10 School Board, worried about police response time in case of emergency, voted Monday to petition the village of Caseyville to annex the school.

Superintendent Bob Green will now approach the Caseyville Village Board to request the annexation. The Hollywood Heights Special Needs Center would join Caseyville Elementary School to give the village of 4,245 residents two of the 13 schools in the district.

The board also voted to create positions for a Student Information Systems assistant and a Collinsville Middle School cafeteria monitor. The growth in enrollment at the middle school created the need for the additional monitor, School Board President Gary Peccola said. The monitor will join the two existing monitors, working two hours per school day.

The SIS assistant is needed because the director, Karen Muller, has been overwhelmed with new requirements from the State of Illinois, Peccola said. However, Peccola voted against adding the position because the board’s budget committee changed the position from a 10 and 1/2 month position to full time.

“It should be a 10 and 1/2 month position as originally requested by the administration,” Peccola said. “Everyone else is cutting back. I think they should also.”

In other business, the board voted to add three new courses to the Collinsville High School curriculum. CHS students will soon be able to take Advanced Placement Physics 2, an advanced robotics course to complement the existing introductory course and a learning strategies course, which will be offered in the special education department.

A special meeting of the School Board will be held on Oct. 7 to gather public input on the district’s pending waiver request to exempt CHS juniors and seniors from the state’s mandatory physical education requirement.

Related story: http://metroindependent.com/2013/08/22/hollywood-heights-elementary-school-reopened-as-special-needs-center/939/