TrueNorth Educational Cooperative 804 is moving towards extensive reorganization and restructuring, a notable turn after facing seemingly certain dissolution earlier this year.
TrueNorth provides education services to students with special needs in southeastern Lake County, such as those with autism, anxiety, developmental delays, emotional or behavioral disabilities, and other issues.
According to TrueNorth’s leadership, it works with 225 students — whether at their home schools or at TrueNorth’s campus in Highland Park — served by 220 instructional staffers across all its programs.
Earlier this year, several member districts had moved to withdraw from the district, having expanded their own special education programs and services in the decades since the cooperative was founded, and arguing they no longer needed TrueNorth.
What began with a few members snowballed into all 18 participating school districts submitting letters of intent to withdraw from the cooperative. This was despite resistance from some school districts, such as North Shore School District 112, which had initially pushed against withdrawal.
D112 leaders later said they were going to withdraw over concerns about being the last district in the cooperative and having to absorb sole responsibility for it.
But after months of discussions and planning around potential reorganization, including a proposed overhaul of the cooperative’s funding model, the member school districts will vote on Wednesday on new articles of agreement, and make a final decision during the following Dec. 17 meeting on whether they want to remain in the cooperative or continue with withdrawal.
Since the withdrawal shakeup began earlier this year, TrueNorth has seen a change of leadership at the top. Former Superintendent Kurt A. Schneider joined Milwaukee Public Schools as an academic superintendent in June, according to an MPS press release. In his place, leading TrueNorth are interim superintendents Jimmy Gunnell and Jim Nelson.
Gunnell and Nelson have more than three decades of combined experience as executive directors at similar cooperatives. They framed reorganization efforts as a “reimagining” of TrueNorth.
Reorganization
In an interview and a September letter to families and staff, Gunnell and Nelson have laid out the broad strokes of what reorganization would look like. It would include “significant changes to leadership, governance and funding models,” and make the cooperative “more focused and sustainable.”
One of the reasons school districts had moved towards withdrawal had been that, in the decades since its creation, they had expanded their own special education services. Looking ahead, TrueNorth would focus on the “complex and unique learners,” Nelson said, the “1% exceptional learner, those students that need more structure and support.”
“We’re working directly with the district representatives for special education to determine what those needs are,” Gunnell said. “That’s been a big change, to actually listen to what they need and design programs based on their needs.”
According to the letter, funding would shift to a “usage-based” model for member districts, rather than paying the annual membership fees or operations and maintenance assessments based on total student enrollment.
Usage charges would be partially offset by funding from the Illinois State Board of Education, with administrative expenses built into tuition and service rates paid by member districts based on usage, the letter said.
There would also be significant changes to staffing and governance. In the letter, Nelson and Gunnell anticipate that about half of the current TrueNorth administration and staff positions would be eliminated. Gone also would be the superintendent position, they said, replaced by an executive director. The governing board would remain, with representatives from each district.
The reorganization also includes the sunsetting of some current programs and services, since member districts have “developed greater internal capacity,” the letter said.
Arbor Academy, and the three North Shore Academy elementary, middle and high schools would operate as a single therapeutic day school on the TrueNorth campus, the letter said, starting next school year.
TrueNorth would continue to offer early childhood programs to member districts, as well as transition services for students at the therapeutic day school through the school year in which they turn 22.
The cooperative would also continue providing member districts with access to contracted specialized services, including assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication, vision services, nursing coordination and one-on-one support, occupational and physical therapy, speech-language services, and psychological school-based services.
The reorganization would involve big changes, but Gunnell and Nelson said they were both “excited” by “the energy and the collaborative planning, the whole process.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/truenorth-educational-cooperative-804/
