Ombudsman: An Alternate Route

By Carrie Frillman – cfrillman@daily-chronicle.com

DeKALB – The DeKalb School Board approved 6-0 Tuesday a contract that will allow 45 students struggling with their studies to participate next school year in an off-campus program aimed at improving their academic performance.

The district will pay $256,500, or $5,700 per student, for the Ombudsman Program through a contract with the Libertyville-based company, Ombudsman Educational Services Ltd.

Funding will come from increased state aid the district will get by claiming students’ attendance in the program. Also, excess money will be available by reducing participation in current alternative education options offered through the Kishwaukee Education Consortium.

While the KEC’s classroom setting has helped many of the district’s students succeed, others need a more individualized setting, said Kari Cremascoli, executive director of student support services.

“Some students might be referred to Ombudsman and some will remain at KEC,” she said. “Certainly if you can get students engaged in their schooling environment, achievement is going to go up. We do have some students who are not being successful so we need to think outside the box to decide what else we can do for them.”

Working with OES, the district will identify the 45 eligible sixth- through 12th-grade students who will benefit most, with high school students being the primary concern, Cremascoli said. Those with limited English proficiency, behavior problems, academic struggles or chronic truancy may be considered.

“For the most part, it will be voluntary,” she said. “It will be an option made available for those students who are most at risk … There will be some students who may have to be administratively placed there.”

Between 10 and 15 students and up to two instructors will be in each classroom of the technology-based program, in which learners move at their own rates through the curriculum.

“Ombudsman has really developed a system of the teacher and student working collaboratively and deciding the proper pace they should be working at,” Cremascoli said. “The teacher will be checking in pretty regularly to make sure the student is meeting goals.”

Participants will report each school day to a yet-to-be-determined, off-campus site rented or leased by OES. Each student will have an Individualized Learning Plan to hone academic skills in seven key areas. Curricula will include online instruction, print and multimedia resources, small-group interaction and both work study and volunteer opportunities.

An indirect benefit of the program may be helping the district align to state learning standards, called Adequate Yearly Progress, set by the Illinois State Board of Education to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Cremascoli said.

The ISBE has set a goal that 100 percent of Illinois students will be making AYP by 2014. In the 2006-07 school year, the state had a goal of 55 percent of students passing the learning standards.

Neither DeKalb High School or Clinton Rosette Middle School met AYP for that academic year, but the district’s 10 other schools did. Schools that consistently don’t meet AYP goals face consequences, such as having to let students transfer to different schools.

The district originally considered sending 60 students to Ombudsman, which presented a financial burden too heavy for the district, Cremascoli said. Reducing the number of participants is what made the program feasible, Schools Superintendent Paul Beilfuss said.

The OES agreement will automatically renew for the 2009-10 school year and the subsequent year unless the board votes to nullify it in the future, according to the contract.

School Board Secretary Holly Wallace was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, which was the last for Beilfuss, who resigns June 30.