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Walworth County board approves $234,000 multisensory room for Lakeland School
Summary
The Walworth County Children with Disabilities Education Board approved a $234,000 capital project to convert an existing room at Lakeland School into a multisensory environment (MSE) intended to support students with sensory-processing needs, reduce seclusion/restraint incidents and improve IEP service delivery.
The Walworth County Children with Disabilities Education Board on Sept. 18 approved a $234,000 capital improvement project to convert an existing space at Lakeland School into a multisensory environment intended to help students with sensory-processing and dysregulation needs.
The project budget combines $42,000 in 2024 design costs and a proposed $192,000 for 2025 construction, with $112,000 allocated for furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) from a cooperative purchase. Nicole Whitman, identified in the meeting as an associate county engineer for Walworth County, told the board the budget includes an AE design fee of about $21,000 and a construction contingency to cover items such as fire alarm strobes, mechanical adjustments and permitting.
The presenters described a two-sided room design. The “active” side would provide vestibular and proprioceptive activities — swings, trampolines, interactive music panels and cushioned athletic flooring — intended to help students engage and self-regulate. The “calming” side would include fiber-optic lights, cocoon-like seating, bubble tubes and an integrated sensory-control system to present individualized settings for students.
Presenter Matt said the current “no outside distractions” room contains crash pads and nonfunctioning equipment and does not meet modern therapeutic needs. He told board members that Lakeland recorded 142 seclusion and restraint incidents in the 2023–24 school year and that reducing that number is a project objective. “To be frank, this is too many, and we need to reduce the number of those incidents,” Matt said.
Board members discussed the cost and scope, with one member noting that while a single room is a significant expense, it serves a specialized population. Supervisor Ken Munro moved to approve the project as designed; Al Stanek seconded and the motion carried by voice vote.
The project timeline presented calls for continued design work through fall and winter 2024, bidding in late 2024 or early 2025 and construction in summer 2025, subject to final design and procurement steps.
