While they seemed hesitant at first, Community Education in Albert Lea is now enthusiastic about sponsoring a driver-education program for young and inexperienced drivers in Freeborn County.

According to Heidi Cunningham, Albert Lea Community Education director, the decision depended on the level of need in the community. They didn’t want to duplicate services being provided by others, she said.

After word got out that Community Ed needed to see a need before they would decide to offer anything, people started letting them know, she said. They called the Community Ed office and came to advisory board meetings to bring up the topic, said Cunningham. Staff kept track of the numbers as they considered the issues involved with sponsoring driver education classes, she said.

&uot;With the data we’ve collected we do see a need now,&uot; Cunningham said.

Part of the need for families could be the result of delays in getting more private driving school operations set up in Albert Lea, she said.

The school district will cut its drivers’ ed program at the end of this school year.

Now that the decision to set up a program has been made, Community Ed has sent an application for a program license into the state and Cunningham will be meeting with the instructors who are currently involved in the program funded by District 241 on Monday night. Cunningham hopes that those instructors, who already have driver education credentials, will be able to provide instruction for the Community Ed program.

Community Ed will offer classroom instruction starting after June 1 and behind-the-wheel-instruction after July 1. They can’t start earlier because the program in District 241 finishes up in June, Cunningham said.

Because the program will be offered by Community Ed, it will be open to youth from the whole area, not just students from the Albert Lea district.