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Spring ISD approves two interlocal agreements with Harris County Department of Education
Summary
Spring ISD trustees approved an interlocal agreement for therapy services (OT, PT, music therapy) and an agreement reserving seats at ABS West for students with intensive behavioral needs; one trustee abstained on the ABS West vote due to an employment relationship with HCDE.
The Spring Independent School District Board of Trustees on Monday approved two interlocal agreements with the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE): one to deliver occupational, physical and music therapy services and a second to reserve seats at HCDE's Academic Behavior School West for students with intensive behavioral needs.
Dr. Latracy Harris, chief of academics and school leadership, told the board the therapy contract covers roughly 490 students who receive those services as outlined in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The board approved the therapy interlocal agreement by a 5-to-1 vote.
Harris said the ABS West agreement seeks to reserve 10 seats for students whose behavioral needs exceed what Spring ISD can provide in-district because of the "extreme nature, frequency and duration" of those behaviors. She told the board the district currently has seven students placed at HCDE's ABS West and asked that 10 seats be reserved.
A motion to approve the ABS West interlocal agreement carried with five votes in favor and one abstention. On the record, a trustee stated they were abstaining "because of my employment relationship with Harris County Department of Education," but the trustee did not give a name on the public record in the segment captured in the meeting transcript.
Trustees moved and seconded the motions and called votes in open session. No dollar amounts or specific contract terms were stated in the public discussion recorded in the meeting packet; Harris described these as annual contracts that the district brings forward routinely.
The board president called for and recorded the votes: the therapy services agreement carried 5-1; the ABS West interlocal agreement carried 5-0 with 1 abstention. The board noted that these contracts are presented annually and requested approval to proceed.
The board followed Texas Open Meetings Act procedures when recessing to closed session earlier in the meeting (citing Government Code §551.071 and §551.074), and trustees completed the interlocal-agreement votes in open session after reconvening.
