The Byron School District Board of Education passed a resolution on March 19, 2009, taking the other member districts of the Ogle County Educational Cooperative (OCEC) to task for being unwilling to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with the Byron District. Byron officials have repeatedly attempted to discuss terms of an agreed withdrawal from OCEC since August 2008. Byron's resolution states "the belligerent refusal of the OCEC Superintendents to negotiate concessions from Byron for an agreed upon withdrawal, all of which concessions would be beneficial to the students served by the OCEC member districts, constitutes an abrogation of these Superintendents' responsibilities to the children they serve." OCEC's unwillingness, for example, to negotiate an agreement that would provide for the continued use of certain Byron classrooms for OCEC students from neighboring districts has created unnecessarily stressful situations for the parents of those children. The School Board's resolution also criticized OCEC's position regarding Byron's withdrawal, citing the following:

• The OCEC bylaws provide a specific procedure for withdrawal which was adhered to by Byron.
• Byron's withdrawal will have no adverse impact on OCEC or its remaining members, as confirmed by an independent study.
• No Illinois school district has ever been denied the right to withdraw from a special education cooperative to provide its own program, the only variable being the amount of time and legal expense it took to withdraw. A contested hearing on Byron's withdrawal will only benefit the lawyers at the expense of school children.
• OCEC has a cost-sharing arrangement for its member districts unique from any other cooperative in the State, where districts share in a variety of special education costs that are incurred entirely in districts other than their own. For example, member districts are required to contribute to the cost of full-time aides and out-of-district placements for children living in other school districts. The only exceptions are the Amboy, Ashton-Franklin Center and Steward School Districts that are required to pay 100% of their own local costs for student aides and out-of-district placements, even as they also enjoy the right to pay a share of the costs for such aides and placements for all other OCEC member districts.

The Illinois State Board of Education has granted preliminary approval to Byron's Special Education Comprehensive Plan and authorized Byron to begin hiring staff necessary to implements its special education plan beginning with the 2009-10 school year. Byron already provides its own special education program for over 230 students. Its departure from OCEC will mean that Byron will now assume complete responsibility for providing the educational program for the remaining 17 Byron students that are currently enrolled in OCEC programs, a point of pride for both members of the Board of Education and its staff.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TEXT OF THE RESOLUTION