Officials urge slower pace in AEA reform at Ottumwa forum

Feb. 20—OTTUMWA — Taking it slow with state-imposed changes to area education agencies was the main takeaway from the League of Women Voters of Ottumwa's Monday forum.

At the Career Campus, representatives from the Great Prairie AEA and Ottumwa Community Schools, along with Pekin Community, discussed the proposed AEA changes and what they would mean for their respective school districts.

Last week, the House Education Committee approved House Study Bill 713 on a 15-8 vote. The original proposal by Gov. Kim Reynolds would have allowed school districts to contract with private companies or other AEAs for special education services, while general education and media services would be cut. This, however, was rejected by the Education Committee.

"Once the bill didn't go through the House Committee, the conversations really started to develop in Des Moines," said Nathan Wood, chief administrator for Great Plain AEA in Ottumwa. "Legislators really came to table and said, 'Okay, how do we make sense of this?' and 'How to move things forward?'"

The revised bill approved by the Committee allots money for special education services to the districts as before, but on the condition that it goes directly to the AEA. Meanwhile, districts can choose to work with private companies for general education and media services starting in the 2025-26 school year. The proposal would still need to move through the full legislature and be signed by the governor.

"I really believe that something will be passed this legislative session. I think when the Condition of the State came out, everybody reacted in their own way of what they thought was going to happen," Wood said. "Since then, the dust has kind of settled, but I still do believe there will be some type of legislative action that will come out of the House and the Senate."

However, while Wood believes that change is coming, he urged that it be conducted at a manageable pace.

"I believe that legislators have to understand the complication that's included in trying to change this large of a system that's been around for 50 years across the state," Wood said. "And we've continually said there are 500,000 kids that depend on the decisions that we make in that session."

Pekin CSD Superintendent Derek Philips also addressed the AEA changes. Philips says he is open to change and like Wood, believes it will come soon. Also like Wood, he urged caution.

"I would ask [for] kind of that slowdown, so we have kind of a safety net for us," Philips explained. "I haven't seen that plan yet and that does concern me a little bit because we have a hard enough time recruiting and retaining staff to come to Pekin and we want to try to make it our culture that it's a good place to be, but it does make it a little more challenging and... the planning part of it can be a challenge."

Pekin schools would receive $270,000. It's enough for four full-time staff, but with the current needs of the district, it's not enough. Meanwhile, with the short amount of staff in a rural district, Philips also finds his hands tied and lacking the time and resources to go outside the AEA.

"I think on paper, I'm homeless liaison, I'm special ed coordinator, I'm superintendent, I mop the floors during the middle of basketball games — and you know, at a small school, you're just everything," Philips said. "And so the services that AEA provides me... they do a great job for us, but also it's the time that I just don't have to coordinate to find somebody to do that."

Ottumwa CSD Superintendent Mike McGrory also spoke at the panel. Adding to their message, McGrory says he has had the opportunity to listen to smaller, rural districts like Pekin, along with larger districts like his own. But even with a wide array of different perspectives, slowing down was almost unanimously agreed on.

"It's going too fast and particularly special ed — I think everybody that I know of is in support of kind of halting it somewhat and not allowing districts to contract out next year," McGrory said. "It will give us all a chance to calibrate what services are getting the value of those services and how we want to move forward."

Donald Promnitz is the associate editor of the Ottumwa Courier and the Oskaloosa Herald. He can be reached at dpromnitz@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter @DonPromnitz.