At the August 10th Washington Community School Board meeting, the board amended the agenda to address an open enrollment request for a special education student. The board approved the amendment and had to deny the open enrollment request due to a lack of resources. Willie Stone, the Superintendent of Washington Community Schools, spoke with KCII and said that the teacher shortage forced the board to do something it didn’t want to do.

“When I called and talked to the parent, I felt terrible because we want to educate kids; that is our job. At the same time, we can’t take away resources that our residents’ students need to help students from other districts. It was a bitter decision to make; as of right now, it is probably how things will be handled for open enrollment for special education students because we are pretty much full up all the way through. We are still missing two special education teachers, we are covering the absence legally in our district, but we could really use two more teachers.”

School begins in Washington on Tuesday, August 23rd; contact information for teachers and staff can be found on the Washington Community Schools website.