School district leader: Adult learners will have 'increased opportunities' with new partnership

District 186 leadership maintained adult learners pursuing a GED will have increased opportunities at Lincoln Land Community College once Lawrence Education Center partners with it.

But Lawrence Education Center's current workforce coordinator says its closure at the end of the month affects not only the school district but the community as a whole.

Alex Rockford, who made a plea for the center last week at the City of Springfield's committee of the whole meeting, took that same plea to Monday's board of education meeting.

No new taxes being considered to pay for potential Bank of Springfield Center expansion

Rockford insisted that Lincoln Land Community College will not receive all of the funding allocated to the Springfield region for adult learners by the Illinois Community College Board and that the area could lose approximately $450,000 annually in workforce development and job training programs for adult education students currently enrolled at the education center.

Reiko Hurd, Lawrence Education Center's principal, said that District 186 is one of only three or four districts in the state that provides its own adult learning and not through a college.

Rockford again Monday said there's room for both programs.

"(LEC offers) a lot of programming that LLCC doesn't offer to students," Rockford said after the meeting. "There's very little overlap in the students we're serving. The programs complement each other."

Nicole Moody, the district's assistant superintendent of teaching, learning and school culture, said while the public perception is that LEC students are being hung out to dry, "they have increased opportunities to support college and career readiness (by going to LLCC).

"This is a win for our students and for our community."

In the public comment section, Rockford said she and other education center staff members "wholeheartedly believe in our students when it seems as though the rest of the world has given up on them."

Lawrence Education Center's last graduation is May 31.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield's Lawrence Education Center will have last graduation May 31