Do we want to become the big box supplier of education?
The issue of school district consolidation is a serious one. It may come before the people of Lake County as a ballot initiative in the near future. I hope we all will look deeper than just the proposed cost savings a single “super” district may or may not bring. Having separate districts for separate towns and cities has worked for decades here. It is one of the things that give Lake County its small town feel. By merging districts we would be creating a single district with an office that would have overall higher costs, be more impersonal, and create longer driving for those parents and school employees who have to do business with the district. Don”t forget, the one thing that would be done first by this new board would be to look into closing schools to further streamline costs.
Each superintendent in our county knows his or her community best. With one mega district students and their parents would become faceless numbers. The staff that it would take to oversee such an expansive district would far exceed the staffs each district has in place now. Many of our districts have superintendents that are also site principals. These districts would have little or no reduction in employees. The only thing that would be reduced is the vision that is in place for our local schools from their local leaders. Overall, we would be creating more positions with higher pay in order to oversee the amount of schools that would be under one umbrella. I would be interested in the cost an existing district office of the same size and amount of schools is.
I think we would be better served to leave things as they are. There are many ways we could consolidate services to save money as a county. We should look into pooling our purchasing power by purchasing books and supplies together. We should look into becoming more energy efficient by researching solar power for our schools.
As a teacher, I like the fact that when I present to the board they know my name and my students. This would all but disappear with a box store approach to education. Local board members know their districts culture better than potential board members of this new district that could live as far as 40 – 60 miles from some of the schools and students they would be making decisions for.
Tony Loumena
Lakeport
