STERLING — After spending 8 years as assistant director, Laurie Heston is the new director of the Bi-County Special Education Cooperative.

"It's always been a goal of mine to be director of Bi-County," Heston said.

Heston replaces Drew Hoffman, who recently resigned for health reasons.

Heston, 44, said not much will change.

"Drew was my friend and mentor, and I believe heavily in what he believed in," Heston said. "I just plan to follow through with what he started."

She does plan to focus more on school curriculum.

"I want to make sure our teachers have access to curriculum that is up to date and based on the Common Core," she said.

While she was assistant director, Heston spent time in classrooms and was involved with the different programs in the schools.

She also spent a lot of time talking with teachers.

"I have a good idea of what direction our teachers want to go in," Heston said.

One additional role she will take on is the budget.

"I don't plan on stepping away from being hands on," she said. "If I have a touch on what is happening, I'll be a much better leader."

Although she is excited about her new role, Heston admits there will be some challenges, including dealing with unfunded mandates.

"We have a state that requires us to do so much, and they will prorate the amount of money they provide not just to school districts, but to the cooperative," Heston said. "We have to think about what is the most efficient, cost-effective ways we can do something."

Teachers in the cooperative are looking forward to having Heston as the director.

"Laurie is extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of special education laws and regulations," said Rob Berry, a teacher at Thome School, which enrolls students with behavioral problems and emotional disabilities. "Both Drew and Laurie put the students, their education, and their rights first and foremost."

Bob Sondgeroth, superintendent of the Whiteside Regional Office of Education, also said Heston is qualified for the position.

"She has great experience with the cooperative," Sondgeroth said. "The board is familiar with her, and the work she has done is very good. They were very happy to have someone of that caliber to step right into the position."

Bi-County brought in Karen Anderson, a retired principal at Prophetstown Elementary School, to replace Heston.

"She will serve in an interim position until the end of the year," Heston said. "We modified the position to just be a program supervisor at this point."

Among other things, Anderson will evaluate the eight life-skills classrooms and provide evaluations for staff.

"Life-skills classrooms are for students with significant disabilities," Heston said. "Those students have physical disabilities, autism or other needs."

Some of the services that Bi-County offers include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language assistance, and a vision and a hearing specialist. Its programs teach life skills, and work with the deaf or hard of hearing and students with emotional disabilities.

Bi-County, which is housed in Wallace School, 506 W. Fourth St., serves several local school districts: Sterling, Rock Falls High, Rock Falls Elementary, Montmorency, East-Coloma-Nelson in Rock Falls, Morrison, Chadwick-Milledgeville, Eastland in Lanark, Erie, Riverbend in Fulton and Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico.

"We are not a school district ourselves," Heston said. "We serve the 11 school districts in Whiteside and Carroll County. We design very specific intensive programming for kids who are the most impaired."

Heston, a Dixon native, has been married to her husband Brian, 46, for 16 years. They live in Annawan and have two sons, Ryan, 9 and Danny, 6.

Hoffman could not be reached for comment.