Rabiner Treatment Center wants to create a consortium with area schools after its application for a contract from the Iowa Department of Human Services was denied earlier this year.

The Fort Dodge Community School District board discussed the possibility of joining the consortium at its meeting Monday night, but no action was taken.

“Rabiner has asked the surrounding school districts if they would be willing to be part of a consortium,” Doug Van Zyl, FDCSD superintendent said. “They are wondering if we would at least be interested in becoming part of a consortium, since they no longer have that funding. That way they can charge per student schools who send kids there.”

Rabiner is a residential treatment facility west of Fort Dodge. It was founded in 1961 by the Iowa State Police Association. It was known at the time as the Jerry Rabiner Memorial Boys Ranch. The site was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rabiner, in memory of their son, Jerry, who was killed in an auto accident in 1953.

Some kids are there full time, while others just attend school there, Van Zyl said.

Rabiner also houses kids placed there on a court order.

Rabiner Chief Executive Officer Brad Klug found out in March that the center hadn’t been awarded the DHS contract for group services.

In Rabiner’s defense, he said that had nothing to do with the center’s quality. In fact, the next month he got some good news, when the center received a three-year accreditation from CARF International. The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services.

That process includes a check of about 1,500 standards, Klug said.

“Essentially we passed every single one of those standards,” he said. “You don’t get a three-year accreditation unless you’re high-quality programming.”

To enter a consortium, a fiscal agent is needed.

According to Mark Egli, Manson Northwest Webster Community School District superintendent, by law MNW would have to serve as the fiscal agent.

Klug said Tuesday that Rabiner has been in talks with MNW and Prairie Lakes AEA.

The measure has not been voted on by the MNW Community School District board.

Klug said the consortium is dependent on MNW.

“Manson Northwest Webster is our home district,” Klug said. “We are an extension of them. It’s kind of in their court. They are a key part to this. If they support it, it can move forward.”

Pat Fitzergald, MNW Community School District board member, said the school is still discussing the matter.

“We are going through financials to make sure everything is going to work,” he said. “Manson will have to oversee it because it’s in our district and we are hoping to involve as many schools as we can to keep the positive things at Rabiner going.”

Klug said about a dozen school districts have been in talks about the consortium.

“They (Rabiner) are now wanting to know how many districts would consider being part of a consortium and if they get enough it will probably make sense for them to do it and become the fiscal agent,” Van Zyl said. “That will give more districts the opportunity to sign a consortium agreement.”

Egli reported that some school districts have already approved the consortium contingent upon MNW becoming the fiscal agent.

“If we would have area schools involved, they would all participate in funding the teachers and supplies,” Egli said. “But the money would have to flow through Manson Northwest Webster.”

Egli favors the agreement.

“We do need it,” he said. “We have had a lot of participation from surrounding districts that are interested. They are just waiting to see if Manson will accept it to be the flow through on the finances.”

“Every school has challenging students that need a different environment for a period of time,” he added. “These students have been sent to Rabiner in the past, but there was no consortium agreement on the financing, so Manson was kind of left to send out bills and be the collector for student costs.”

Those costs would have to be figured out per day, he said.

“The consortium agreement is more solid,” Egli said. “It doesn’t have one school on its own doing this. You have made an agreement beforehand that we are all going to pitch in with this. We would use the same teachers that were previously hired by Rabiner. They are just kind of waiting to see where their contracts are going to come from.”

Van Zyl said, based on Rabiner’s estimates, it costs between $450,000 and $500,000 to run the facility.

If there are enough schools involved, the cost per school to keep Rabiner afloat would be reasonable, Van Zyl said.

The FDCSD had eight kids placed at Rabiner’s facility this past year, Van Zyl said.

Van Zyl said it makes sense for the district from a financial perspective.

“If we needed a kid to go out there and that was the best place for their services, we would have to pick up responsibility of hiring another teacher,” he said. “That would be more challenging economically.”

“We have had kids go out there and be successful,” he added.

Rabiner allows kids to stay closer to their home school, Van Zyl said.

“It’s nice to have Rabiner because once they are successful there, they start trying to transition them back to their home schools to be successful,” Van Zyl said. “So if that were the case, we would want our kid to transition back to us.”

Klug is hopeful an agreement will be reached.

“It should be based on what the kids needs are,” Klug said. “As soon as kids are ready to go back to their home school, we are glad to help make that happen.”

Egli said the MNW school board could take a vote on the matter during a special meeting or at the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting in July.

Egli is in his final days as superintendent. Justin Daggett will officially step into the role July 1.