The superintendent of the state’s two special schools for the deaf and blind is retiring. Information from the Iowa Board of Regents says Patrick Clancy has submitted his retirement notice effective June 30th of next year.

Clancy began as superintendent of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in 2008 and was also named to the same position for the Iowa School for the Deaf in April of 2012.

Clancy has been at the center of the controversial debate to create a regional system to educate blind and deaf students in the state. That proposal would keep the school for the deaf in Council Bluffs and school for the blind in Vinton as two of the regional centers while adding three new centers in the state.  The National Federation of the Blind opposed the move.

The Board of Regents will act to accept his retirement and begin the process of finding a replacement during their meeting via telephone on Wednesday.