Denver City ISD Superintendent, Gary Davis issued a letter on August 31st to the seven member districts of the Four County Special Services Arrangement (special education cooperative), that DCISD intends to resign as the fiscal agent and withdraw from the FCSSA after the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
DCISD became the fiscal agent for the co-op in in 2015 after Brownfield ISD left the co-op and relinquished its position as the fiscal agent. Member districts include: Plains, Wellman-Union, Tahoka, New Home, O’Donnell, Seagraves, Loop and Denver City.
“The decision for DCISD to withdraw from the FCSSA is strictly a business decision”, Mr. Davis said. “In times when we are looking for areas to reduce spending, we have determined that we can become a ‘stand-alone’ district and provide the same services to our special education students for less money.”
Becoming a “stand-alone” district means that Denver City students will be educated on their home campuses and will not have to be transported to other districts as they have in the past. For years, students were taken to Brownfield ISD and more recently, the junior high students were taken to Seagraves and the high school students to Plains. In the future, DCISD students will all be taken care of locally.
The letter that was sent to all superintendents of FCSSA member districts, was pursuant to the FCSSA Operating Guidelines, which states that the Fiscal Agent must notify other member districts of any intention to withdraw as Fiscal Agent of the SSA at least one full fiscal year preceding the end of the last fiscal year it intends to serve as Fiscal Agent. In addition, DCISD must notify the Texas Education Agency of its intent to withdraw on or before February 1st.
“We intend to fulfill our commitments until August 31, 2017, the last day of the fiscal year and continue to provide quality services for all students of the co-op”, Mr. Davis commented. “We regret having to make this decision, but we feel that it is in the best interest of our students.”
The FCSSA Board of Directors will meet on Wednesday for their regular quarterly meeting.
