LAKE COUNTY – A feasibility study looking at unifying the county's seven school districts has been released to local education officials.

The Lake County Board of Education received the Lake County School District Reorganization Feasibility Report at its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 14. The report was the work of the School District Reorganization Feasibility Task Force.

The Lake County Board of Education established the task force at the request of the Lake County Board of Supervisors. In January, the Lake County Board of Supervisors at the request of a local citizen began discussion of potential cost savings if the seven school districts and the county office of education would unify either totally or partially.

The board requested, by Resolution 2009-15, the “… creation of a Feasibility Task Force by the Lake County Board of Education to consider the potential for cost savings and the general effects to be anticipated should any of the school districts in Lake County be unified with one or more existing districts.”

Once this resolution was presented to the County Board of Education, the county board directed the county superintendent to establish a task force of local citizens to prepare an initial feasibility study of the impacts of such unification proposals.

Task force members were selected by the county board and the county superintendent based on representation from all areas of the county and their knowledge and experience in working in the public and private sector.

The Lake County Board of Education and the county superintendent of schools both extended their gratitude and appreciation to the members of the task force and the task force facilitators for their hard work and perseverance in tackling this challenging issue.

The purpose of the report was to present a preliminary, exploratory study of school district unification options in Lake County outlining any potential advantages and disadvantages. The report would then be presented to the Lake County Board of Supervisors who would decide if a formal study should be prepared by a paid professional consultant.

A formal study would meet the standards for submission to the State Board of Education for possible implementation of a specific unification proposal to be submitted to the voters.

The task force decided to limit the study to three possible unification options:

1. Reorganization of all seven districts and the county office into one single countywide district;

2. Reorganization into two districts – Konocti Unified and Middletown Unified into one district; Kelseyville Unified, Lakeport Unified, Lucerne Elementary, Upper Lake High and Upper Lake Elementary into one district;

3. Reorganization into five districts – Konocti, Middletown, Kelseyville and Lakeport would remain unified districts and Upper Lake High, Upper Lake Elementary and Lucerne Elementary would become one unified district.

The task force examined what currently exists at the present time. The fiscal status of the seven school districts was reviewed and projected income and potential expenditures under each of the three options indicated above.

The task force was advisory only and did not make any recommendations. Its purpose was to present factual data and potential outcomes.

The report is not intended to be a professional in-depth study of the caliber that can be presented to the State Board of Education. It is simply an exploratory effort to see if such a professional study should be done, according to the Lake County Office of Education.

Some conclusions that came from the study were that a revenue increase is possible through unification of districts due to the “leveling up” blended revenue limit calculation. However, expenditures are difficult to predict.

In this study, average employee salaries were examined and projections made on the average high salaries. In a more in-depth professional study, salary schedules currently negotiated in each of the seven districts would have to be analyzed and a new hypothetical common salary schedule for teachers and support staff developed. This could increase the expenditures projected in this feasibility study. The same is also true in developing common health and welfare benefit costs for all employees.

Public opinion was not assessed or surveyed in this study. Comments were made by members of the task force who have participated in the merger of fire districts and justice courts in Lake County that public opinion is difficult to quantify and predict.

It was also noted that there are several means to achieve costs savings without unification if the school districts intensify their communication and cooperation with each other and other public agencies in the areas of transportation, food services, maintenance and operations, information technology services, etc. Efforts have begun to do joint bidding on fuel and other needed supplies.

The report has been distributed to the seven school district boards of education and to the Lake County Board of Supervisors.

A joint meeting of the Lake County Board of Education and the Lake County Board of Supervisors has been scheduled for Dec. 8 at 6 p.m. in the Board of Supervisor’s chambers. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the report and to determine the next steps that will be taken by the Board of Supervisors.

A copy of the 53-page report is available online on the Lake County Office of Education Web site www.lakecoe.org and a printed copy is available at the Lake County Office of Education’s main office 1152 S. Main St. Lakeport, CA.

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