In February, after community member Lowell Grant asked the Board of Supervisors to consider the unification issue, the board supported creating a committee to explore that issue.
The committee, working with the office of education, released a 53-page report in October that considered possible costs and savings.
Retired county superintendent Dr. Bill Cornelison gave the two boards a summary of the report's findings Tuesday.
The advisory task force created a basic report, which Cornelison said isn't in-depth enough if officials wanted to move forward with fully evaluating unification. Such a report would require hiring a professional firm.
Committee members considered three options: one large school district; two districts for the north and south; and five districts, with the Northshore's smaller districts – Lucerne Elementary, Upper Lake Elementary and Upper Lake High School – combining into one.
The study looked at the unification interests going back to the start of the 20th century, considered current district sizes and enrollment projections, and forecast how the districts would look under the three unification scenarios and fiscal constraints. Cornelison said they also looked at districts in other rural areas, such as Marysville and Del Norte County.
The committee calculated revenue limits and income for the school districts, and projected expenditures under unification, he explained.
“The bottom line was that, yes, there would be a revenue increase,” he said. However, there also would be expense increases.
The reports conclusions showed a net gain of $1,075,166 in revenue for the single district model, a loss of $2,412 for the two district model and a gain of $285,840 for the five district model.
“We can certainly say that, yes, the districts probably would have a little more money if the salaries and benefits package were averaged out, but there's no guarantee that would happen,” and it is doubtful that there would be sufficient funding to balance budgets, Cornelison said.
However, the committee found there were opportunities for greater collaboration amongst districts to achieve savings in purchasing and other services. “This could be accomplished without having to do any unification at all,” he said.
County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck said local districts already have engaged in such collaboration. This year, they worked on countywide bids for fuel and custodial supplies. Later in the meeting he noted the districts saved $30,000 in fuel thanks to a group purchase.
Board of Education Chair Dr. Mark Cooper said there wasn't a groundswell from the community for changes, only to support how the districts currently are structured.
Noted during the meeting were the teacher salary comparisons for the districts, included in one of the report's appendices. The lowest average salary rate is in the Konocti Unified School District, at $49,066, while Upper Lake Elementary has the highest average salary, $63,952. All are still below the state average of $65,808.
Still, autonomy is valued by the districts. Cooper said they questioned whether Lucerne's teachers – whose average salary is $52,791 – would want to be brought up to the Upper Lake Elementary level if the Northshore districts unified.
“They would rather have a lower salary and keep their autonomy, and that kind of took me by surprise, but that's what they said to us,” Cooper said.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington said the Board of Supervisors was in the unusual position of being involved in the discussion. “I'm not certain really where I see us going from here,” he said.
Still, he called the report “a great first step” in deciding how to proceed.
Community members offer different views on unifying schools
Lowell Grant, who also sat on the committee, said the report didn't include all of the possible savings, including conferences, travel and negotiations. He said there was a much greater savings potential.
Board Chair Denise Rushing noted the complexity of the report, and stated that the decision to unify ultimately should be up to voters. She asked County Counsel Anita Grant about the board's role in the discussion.
“The Board of Supervisors' role here is extremely limited,” Grant said.
Ron Raetz, president of the Upper Lake High School Board of Trustees, said a lot of discussion has focused on school boards and administrators. “We just kind of toss the kids out with the dishwater.”
He said in his 29 years at Upper Lake High School they've been unable to sit down with all of the Northshore districts. “It's very confusing and disheartening to see that these groups cannot get together and discuss what's best for children.”
Walt Christensen, a member of the Upper Lake Elementary School District Board of Trustees, said unification isn't a new idea, and has been discussed previously. “It wasn't a good idea the last two times it was brought up,” he said, noting the initial costs are “huge.”
He added that smaller districts are kid friendly, and Upper Lake Elementary has the highest attendance rate, while Upper Lake High School has the highest truancy.
Lucerne Elementary teacher Tammy Saldana, speaking on behalf of her Lucerne colleagues, said they had major concerns that their students' education could be harmed in unification.
The school is small, cohesive and effective in facing its challenges. She said they have better technology and resources than some of the county's larger districts. “I think it's very dangerous when teachers don't have the resource they need to teach,” she said.
Upper Lake High School Board Member Colleen Alexander said she supported unifying the three Northshore Districts, which would offer more coordinated curriculum for students – “a no brainer we've all talked about.”
Addressing Christensen's comments about truancy, Alexander said, “Who cuts? It's not your kindergartners or your third graders,” but high schoolers, a comment that sparked some laughter.
Returning to the microphone, Lowell Grant said they haven't yet seen the storm heading toward education, including cuts that he estimated would grow significantly over the next few years.
“This is the legacy of Prop 13, like it or don't,” he said.
Grant said the unification discussion was about preserving teachers' jobs, and the choice was between cutting those positions or administrators.
Mike Adams, a former Kelseyville Unified board member and an administrator at Mendocino College, said the goal can't just be unification. “The goal's got to be bigger than that and broader than that.”
There are huge benefits in small community schools, and Adams hoped that maintaining autonomy and identity also would be goals the boards would consider.
Konocti Unified School District Board Member Carolynn Jarrett, a retired teacher herself, agreed with more collaboration to realize savings and benefit districts. She said all of the county's unions would have to agree to the consolidation idea, which would be a huge challenge.
Patricia Mohl, the retired director of business services for the Lake County Office of Education, sat on the committee that created the unification report.
While they tried to keep their personal opinions out of it, she wanted to share her own opinion.
“I have to look at the numbers,” Mohl said. “Two school districts did not make sense financially. They would be under at the very beginning.”
Likewise, one large district also likely would struggle, she said. However, it made sense in the numbers, and to Mohl personally, to consolidate the Northshore districts.
There would be upfront costs, which Mohl suggested “will not seem that great” in five years.
Pam Tarner, a Lucerne Elementary teacher and former board member for Upper Lake High School, questioned the wisdom of combining Lucerne with Upper Lake's schools nine miles away. She'd seen unification efforts before that didn't go anywhere.
“I feel strongly that Lucerne is unique – it is not better, it is unique – and it needs to stay the way it is,” she said.
Dr. Richard Smith, a professor of school administration who also served on the consolidation committee, did the projections for school enrollments.
“It's all about the kids; unfortunately, there are going to be fewer kids,” he said, with declining enrollment expected to diminish the revenue of small districts.
Eventually, something must be done, he said. “I don't know that consolidation is a way to avoid those problems, but I do think cooperation is,” Smith said.
Dr. Bill MacDougall, superintendent of Konocti Unified, said they need to be able to offer the same quality of education and services with less money.
MacDougall said he's made cuts from the top, eliminating administrators' positions in the face of dwindling resources. “The teachers make the miracles, the administrators don't,” he said.
However, when he cut those administrative positions, he found people were overloaded and their expertise wasn't maximized.
He, too, supported cooperation between districts as a way forward. “That will save money and we will have the expertise where it belongs. That's a collaborative effort. That's just as big as the unification you're talking about.”
Boards choose a next step
At the end of the public hearing, Geck said if the boards were convinced they should go ahead, the supervisors could request the office of education initiate a formal study of the set of unification proposals.
If they wanted to have a formal study done, it would cost between $25,000 and $50,000. If unification went to an election, Geck quoted costs from the county elections office that ranged between $27,500 and $114,000.
Patricia Hicks, a county Board of Education member, said of the committee report, “There's very little actual cost savings within this document.”
She recommended that they continue to expand cost sharing and, if the community wants to pursue unification, a petition process can begin.
County Counsel Anita Grant told the supervisors that their agenda called for them taking no formal action.
Supervisor Jeff Smith suggested the districts get together to find ways to save money. “It can be done. Actually, it's got to be done. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it.”
Supervisor Jim Comstock suggested the two boards should meet again in six months to look at progress.
Farrington said the committee's report was too skeletal to make a decision at this point. He suggested getting all of the districts' board members and administrators under one roof for a discussion.
Rushing said she believed everything had to be on the table. But she was concerned about Lucerne, whose school is a central part of the community.
“Whatever the solution is, preserving that community's autonomy really matters,” she said.
Geck said the board of education has its next meeting Wednesday night so they can get to work on additional discussion. “I did heard a clear message about being more aggressive in collaboration.”
The two boards agreed to meet back at a future date to discuss further collaborative efforts.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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