LAKE COUNTY ? School district unification and its potential savings and effects will be the focus of a work group the Lake County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support at its Tuesday meeting.
The resolution the board passed calls for the Lake County Board of Education to form a 10- to 12-member task force to spend three months considering whether any of Lake County”s seven school districts should be unified with one or more other districts. The group would examine potential savings from reducing administration and how unification would affect school programs.
“What we”re doing here is the beginning of the process and looking at whether we want to spend the money it takes to begin that State Board of Education process,” Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck said.
The work group would conduct a preliminary study, but Geck estimated the cost to conduct an in-depth study required by the state in order to begin the process would be approximately $20,000 plus staff time. He said after numerous public hearings, the end result would be a proposal that would go before Lake County”s voters.
The idea of consolidating all of the county”s school districts into one district was brought before the board by former Upper Lake Elementary Union School District Board member Lowell Grant at the Jan. 6 board of supervisors meeting.
Grant touted potential savings from having one superintendent instead of seven and fewer school board members. He said if the school system continues as it is, impending state cuts could result in overcrowding.
Although the advantages and drawbacks of consolidation were not on the agenda for discussion, supervisor Jim Comstock, two representatives of the Konocti Unified School District and Lakeport Unified School District Board President Tom Powers offered the board their opinions on the matter.
Comstock reiterated his belief that government is best at its lowest level.
“Extreme caution needs to be put forth. It is imperative that mom can meet a school board member in the grocery store and look at him eye to eye and talk about things in that district,” Comstock said.
Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Bill MacDougall said the savings from eliminating administrative costs might not be as much as anticipated. Board member Carolyn Jarrett said the task of getting each labor union to agree to the prospect could be daunting.
“There is ? great disparity, which I”m sure this report will point out to you in the end, amongst the kinds of contracts, salaries and benefits that are available in the different districts. I think we have to be very careful of putting all of this under one umbrella,” Jarrett said.
Powers said he didn”t believe there had been enough communication in the community about the consideration, and said his board would discuss the matter in its Thursday meeting.
“I am in favor of looking at this, but we need to proceed cautiously,” Powers said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
