Submitted by Representative Ken Gordon
State Representative Ken Gordon (D-Bedford), joined with Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) to welcome EDCO Collaborative (EDCO) to its new home in Bedford Monday evening. EDCO operates a professional training center, a high school for behaviorally challenged children, and oversees the LABBB Collaborative (LABBB), which addresses the education of special needs children from the region.
The legislators helped honor Eileen McSwiney who retired after 34 years, and helped dedicate the Eileen McSwiney Center for Professional Learning at the newly opened school. Editor’s Note: Click to learn more about the EDCO McSwiney Speaker Series
“What a moving experience to be involved with such an important educational collaborative,” said Rep. Gordon. “Everyone has a right to learn and EDCO provides environments in which children with different challenges can find the opportunity to do just that. This regional collaboration approach to teaching allows us to take the best from our various school districts, and make all of them better.”
EDCO, made up of a Board of Directors that includes school committee members and superintendents from its 19 member districts including Bedford’s Jon Sills, relocated from its Waltham facility to a converted office complex on Middlesex Turnpike. The newly refurbished space will provide learning centers where teachers from the region will receive continuing education, and where the center will oversee programs for hearing impaired and migrant students.
Barrett, the Senate Chair of the Committee for Children, Families and Disabilities, said he was intrigued with the possibilities offered by the EDCO professionals. “We in state government can learn from you,” he said. “Your approach is productive, supportive and I am very interested in the positive way you have made a difference in the lives of our children.”
McSwiney is a well-known facilitator who brought together experts from various communities to address problems that cropped up in one school district or another. She is responsible for drafting several grants that helped EDCO to flourish.
LABBB involves a teaching program including sessions in all three elementary schools in Burlington, John Glenn Middle School in Bedford and both Burlington and Bedford High Schools.
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