ESU 15 suspended special ed. services Friday at CCS

■ Editor’s note: A figure in last week’s story on the 2020-21 ESU 15 contract was incorrect. The ESU contract amount for the current school year is $310,900. The CCS approved a contract last week with few ESU services for 2021-22.

An abyss continues to exist between the superintendent at Chase County Schools and Educational Service Unit 15 (ESU) administration on how the ESU’s services are billed.
    Interviews with both CCS Supt. Adam Lambert and Paul Calvert, ESU 15 administrator, found they still have a difference of opinion.
    Meanwhile, CCS has stopped paying its monthly bills for ESU’s contracted special ed services, and ESU specialists stopped coming to the school last Friday.
    “I’m a little unclear on what he (Lambert) means. He’s never really explained what he wants,” Calvert said from his office in Trenton Tuesday.
    Calvert said the ESU employees “clock in and out” when they come in to CCS, which has been the case all school year.
    CCS is the only school in their region that requires staff to clock in, he said, and the only school that has an issue with its billing system.
    Supt. Lambert didn’t dispute the clocking in, but said more than that is required.
    What’s lacking in the ESU billing, he said, is the name of each child served and the hours spent with that child.
    “That (clocking in) tells how many hours they are in the building but not how much time is spent with each individual student,” Lambert said.
    “It says ‘estimated’ on the contract because they never know how many actual hours will be served until the school year is over,” Lambert continued.
    “That is why the district continues to ask for itemized billing.”  
    Calvert said all other schools to which they provided services are getting the same contract and billing as CCS.
    “I sent the CCS board a letter last week signed by six other superintendents in the ESU stating they understand how the billing works, and are perfectly fine with it,” Calvert said.
    He said the ESU bills only for their exact costs.
    Their last bill of the school year, in June, is adjusted each year to the actual cost of the personnel that serve the district, Calvert added.
    While the school year is 75% completed, CCS has made just two payments to the ESU. They receive eight bills during the school year, Lambert said.
    Calvert said they utilize a billing form off the Nebraska Dept. of Education web page, but Lambert said he disagrees because that NDE form has blanks for listing student names and the hours spent on that student. Lambert said those specifics are not being included.
    The CCS board broke part way through its February meeting to meet in closed session with its attorney, KSB School Law, which two days later, on Feb. 11, sent a letter informing the ESU that CCS was stopping payment until itemized bills are provided.
    Calvert said the ESU has employed legal counsel, as well.
    “Unfortunately I’ve had to resort to wasting money over legal services over this deal, and shouldn’t have to,” he said.
    Calvert said he’s only spoken to Lambert once this school year on Sept. 10 when he and John Hansen, the ESU’s special ed director, came to Imperial to review the billing system with the first-year CCS superintendent.
    “He didn’t like it and repeatedly shut us down and said ‘There’s new leadership in town,’” Calvert said.
    He said they mentioned then the billing has been that way for 12 years, but said Lambert didn’t like it that way.
    “I brought it up on three different occasions to our superintendent group,” Calvert added, asking them if they were okay with how the billing was being done at their schools.
    “They said, yep, keep it the same,” Calvert said.
    Lambert said without ESU coming for services now, they are working on meeting students’ needs.
    “I hope ESU will fulfill its contract and come back to work.
    “We’re not denying their services. We’d like them to be here, but they’re the ones choosing not to be here,” he said.
    “Like I’ve said, they need to itemize the billing,” he said.
    No other school has asked for such itemization, according to Calvert.
    As far as the ESU staff who were serving CCS students, Calvert said he will be honoring all of the provisions of their employment contracts.
New firm hired for ‘21-22
    Lambert said the new firm hired last week by the board, McConnell Psychological Services of North Platte, will provide all of the contracted services they did not renew with ESU 15 for 2021-22.
    “Actually, it will be more time. They will be in the building more,” Lambert said of the new firm.
    They will also clock in each day they are at CCS, he told board members last week.
    Cost-wise, he said next year’s overall contracted special ed costs will be less than the ESU’s contract for this year of $310,900. McConnell will provide the bulk of what ESU was contracted for this year, he said.
    Board members last week approved hiring McConnell for $134,076.
    They also approved a 2021-22 ESU 15 contract for $131,250, vastly smaller than this year, most of which will be for speech therapy ($95,500). Another $35,750 in the ‘21-22 contract will be for early childhood services (speech and resource).
    Services not renewed with ESU 15 for 2021-22 include psychologist, resource services, special ed. director/supervision, occupational therapy and transition, which Lambert said would be covered by the new firm.