Plan to relocate DeKalb School District 428 special ed program approved

DeKALB – An estimated $1.5 million plan floated to relocate DeKalb School District 428′s transition special education program from DeKalb High School to a residential home was approved this week.

The board’s approval is meant to help provide the means for an alternate space for a special education program designed for students ages 18 to 22.

It’s the district’s intent to find a residential home that will offer classroom space in addition to living space. District staff has said the move will help students realize their potential as community members.

Although no specific location has been identified for the transition program, school officials intend to bring the matter back to the board for consideration before a financial offer is made.

Board President Deyci Ramirez wanted clarification about the district’s plan to relocate the transition program.

“How will we fund this project?” Ramirez said.

Armir Doka, the district’s director of business and finance, said funding plans already are underway.

“It was a fund set aside because of reimbursements we’re getting for architectural designs of the design committee’s civil engineering for the new school,” Doka said. “We started that process back in April, and we’re going to get financing in November. Once that financing comes in, we’ll get reimbursed for all the way up to April. … It’s about $800,000.

“The rest came in from projects that are either shelved or were not approved in September.”

Some board members expressed reservations about the plan to relocate the district’s transition program from its current location at DeKalb High School.

Board member Christopher Boyes said that any money used to relocate the program still is money the district will owe annual interest on.

“To just say it’s a windfall of money that we just got out of the sky, I think, is dishonest to the public,” Boyes said. “It’s still money we are paying an interest rate on for the next 20 years.”

Doka tried to address his concern.

“You’re talking about the financing,” he said. “Those are reimbursements. ... We were going to pay that money anyway. So this is money that we would have allocated for it. It was money that should have come out of financing. That is one thing that we’re doing is getting an investment manager to mitigate some of that interest that we’re losing by investing the money as construction goes on and pays off.”

The only dissenting vote on the plan to relocate the transition program was cast by board member Amanda Harness.