Inside TrueNorth’s reorganization following the old model’s collapse in 2025

After a cascade of withdrawal notices in 2025, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative has restructured its operations in a bid to remain viable, marking a critical turning point for the Highland Park-based special education cooperative.

Since September of last year, TrueNorth has been working on a reorganization that is set to be implemented this upcoming fall. The co-op has created a dedicated website related to the changes and emailed an update to partner families on Friday, April 24, detailing the plans.

This need for reorganization came after all of TrueNorth’s 18 partner school districts signaled an intent to withdraw from the co-op by mid 2025, said Jim Nelson, who is TrueNorth’s co-interim superintendent with Jimmy Gunnell.

Gunnell said that to prevent the co-op from dissolving, reorganization was the viable alternative, and that process began in September 2025.

“The co-op was not meeting the districts’ needs,” Nelson said. “Due to the frustration this caused to member districts, they withdrew as the cost was not meeting their needs.”

The update sent to families April 24 highlighted some of the changes, including the development of a therapeutic day school called North Shore Academy, which will “support students in building the skills needed to successfully reintegrate into their home schools whenever possible.”

While these changes are taking shape, True North will continue to offer transition programs (for post-high school students) and early childhood programs.

TrueNorth has also changed its fee structure, moving to a “use-based” model for member districts.

Member districts will no longer have to pay any annual membership fees for operation or maintenance based on total student enrollment. For a school like New Trier High School, that annual fee was $400,000. Instead, member districts reportedly will only pay for the services they are requesting from TrueNorth.

The pending changes have caused partner districts, like New Trier High School, to reconsider leaving TrueNorth. Detailing the school’s decision to remain with TrueNorth, New Trier Associate Superintendent Chris Johnson said in November 2025: “New Trier was a founding member of TrueNorth in 1959, and we are pleased to recommend that we continue to be a part of its next chapter.”

Member districts also include Township High School 113, North Shore 112, Winnetka 36, Kenilworth 38, Glencoe 25 and Sunset Ridge 28.

Looking ahead

In its current form, TrueNorth operates five programs with different names, such as Arbor Academy and North Shore Academy Elementary. By January 2027, North Shore Academy will be a single therapeutic day school serving different needs (kidergarten through age 22) across three buildings on TrueNorth’s Highland Park campus.

“The therapeutic day school model will provide high quality, special instruction, integrated with related services through an interdisciplinary classroom based staffing,” Gunnell said.

He added, “It will also include small class sizes, highly specialized staff to support students with significant social, emotional behavioral and/ or developmental needs.”

TrueNorth will continue to offer member districts specialized services like assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication, vision services, nursing coordination and one-on-one support, occupational and physical therapy, speech-language services and psychological school-based services.

“We are going to continue to be a servant leader and maintain our commitment to our districts through our continuous services,” Nelson said.

Measuring success

TrueNorth is “constantly involved” with other special education co-ops in Chicagoland, looking at tuition costs and program results, said Nelson.

Partner school districts notify TrueNorth what they need, and TrueNorth works to plug that into its program and service so that it has a complete continuum of services within each district, according to Gunnell.

To determine if the reorganization is successful, Nelson said that TrueNorth will benchmark data to see if its programs are assisting students in their “least restrictive environment” and if the agency can bridge those students “back to their home district.”

“One of the benefits of co-op learning is that member districts are able to pool their resources when they need TrueNorth services,” Gunnell said. “That’s where they will find the expertise to serve their kids who have diverse abilities.”

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