By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp. — On Dec. 12, representatives from Oakland County Intermediate School District gave a presentation to the Brandon board of education about the services available to the Brandon district, as well as how they have helped the district in the last two years.
The presenters were Dr. Wanda Cook-Robinson, superintendent, Kenneth Gutman, deputy superintendent, and George Ehlert, Oakland Schools board of education president.
“Oakland Schools, we’re what is known as an educational service agency. We serve the 28 districts of Oakland County,” said Ehlert. “Our focus is to save you money, save resources, so you can devote more to the classrooms and the students.”
Some of the things Oakland Schools provides include consolidated support and services, professional development for teachers and the latest research-based instructional methods, training for support staff personnel, piloting innovative programs, coordinating early childhood, special education and career and technical education across the county.
“We really work to serve the needs of the local districts. What we do comes from you,” said Ehlert. “We want to increase student achievement at all levels, we want to serve the diverse needs of the district. We want to be there for every district, large, small, urban, rural, everywhere in between.”
Ehlert also said that in the 2021-2022 school year, 93 percent of their budget went toward support programs and services in the county school districts.
Dr. Cook Robinson went on to say that between July 1, 2020 and Dec. 8, 2022, Oakland Schools has provided 1,349 hours of service to Brandon Schools specifically, and that they have had 66 consultants in the district across dozens of areas.
“You’ll see that in the area of special education, I know you provide a lot of support for your special education students here in Brandon, and PA-18 allotment to Brandon is $2, 517,724,” she said. “Overall, you have over 2.9 million dollars that comes to Brandon in the products and services that we provide. We see Brandon as our partner. So we don’t always have all the answers, but together we can find the answers.”