Special education group says DPS may push back end of partnership

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - A letter from the Macon-Piatt Special Education District said Decatur Public Schools is considering pushing back the end of their run as the group's administrative district until the summer of 2022. 

MPSED officials said they received a letter from DPS Superintendent Dr. Paul Fregeau on Nov. 18 asking for his letter from June 24, which showed DPS no longer wished to be the administrative district, to be rescinded. Officials said DPS wants to resubmit its notice, which would push their intent to end the partnership to the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year, or June 30, 2022. 

The letter said DPS is planning to put the potential change on the open session board agenda for Dec. 8, 2020. The MPSED executive board will be ready to respond if DPS chooses to push back from 2021 to 2022 by scheduling a special meeting for 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 9, per the document. 

The official DPS agenda for Dec. 8 has rescinding the June 24 letter on it as an item, confirming what was in the MPSED letter. 

MPSED said it has already started the process of moving its administrative district to the Regional Office of Education 39 and was setting up employee meetings to talk about salary and benefits when it received the new DPS letter. To avoid confusing employees, it plans to delay those meetings after the two upcoming board meetings happen. 

Should it be decided the timeline stays the same, MPSED said employee meetings will happen on the week of Dec. 14-18 over Zoom. 

DPS declined to comment when WAND News reached out Friday. 

See the full letter for more information. It is attached to this story.