District to return Summit House and reports first month without residential SPED placements in years

The Platte County School District #1 special education presenter reported that the district will return the Summit House lease and not renew it, citing a change in the high‑school schedule that reduced student access to the program.

"We're gonna return that house back. We're not gonna continue to lease it," said Speaker 7, the special education presenter. She explained that, because scheduling shifted, students could no longer access the house as they had in previous years and that remaining resources and materials would be relocated to classroom space to continue instruction.

Speaker 7 reported there are 126 qualified special education students in the district and said the district was closing out the 2024 SPED grant and beginning to spend from the current year's grant. She outlined staffing needs for the coming year, asking for two additional positions at Libby, a half‑time position at West, and one or two at the middle school, while noting the high school staffing is stable. The presenter also said this is the first month in roughly eight years with no students placed in residential treatment.

The presentation implied staffing and program adjustments will be handled within existing buildings and through grant funds; the district directed questions to the special education presenter and referred board members to grant and budget documents available in the packet.

Next steps: the special education staffing requests and program adjustments will be considered during budgeting and staffing allocations; no formal vote on Summit House lease termination was recorded in the transcript.