ST. JOHN | Lake Central School Corp. officials want to make it clear that no changes will take place in West Lake Special Education Cooperative programs and services because of measures taken to reduce the general fund by $2 million.

  Administrators said they received numerous phone calls and questions when The Times reported last week in a story about budget cuts that Lake Central would forgo its contribution to West Lake.

Lake Central and Munster schools fund the special education cooperative budget annually, said West Lake director Marlene Sledz.

However, the cooperative received about $3.2 million in funding in August through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The districts don't have to contribute like they typically would because the ARRA money takes the place of it," Sledz added.

As a result, Lake Central was able to reduce its general fund budget by $445,200. Munster's contribution was not available.

The ARRA money is expected to run out in September 2011 and school districts will be faced with putting the money back in their general fund budgets.

"It's going to come back because when the federal stimulus funding runs out, then the money from the two school districts has to kick back in to fund the West Lake budget," she said.