The Middletown Unified School District Governing Board met Wednesday, Feb. 11, for its annual strategic planning event to gather input on the direction for the district. With the long range forecast for the budget looking bleak, ways to save money while still providing high quality learning dominated the discussion.
The school site councils from all of the schools and some other individuals were invited to attend the meeting and look at several key areas including, school configuration, fiscal solvency, educational options, student learning, technology projects, and facilities.
The topic of school configuration dominated the discussion. The discussion ranged from closing schools to grade reconfiguration to maximize resources. The fate of Cobb Elementary and Minnie Cannon Elementary were both discussed as the group grappled with the expense of operating small schools.
No decisions were made at the meeting, but the sentiment was clear that other options for decreasing costs should be considered before closing schools. Cobb has been among the highest performing schools in the region and the top performer in Lake County since the academic performance index was introduced. A new school facility for Minnie Cannon is in the planning stages, so closing either school is no longer being considered.
Another topic of note was a discussion of increasing the Middletown High School graduation requirements to align with the requirements for admission to the University of California and California State University systems. Several other districts in the state have made this move to assure that all students who graduate have the option to attend a university.
Other cost savings and revenue generating ideas were shared including charging a fee for bus transportation. The Board has considered this in the past, but felt it had not had enough input from parents on the topic to consider this option.
A Middletown school board meeting has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, in the Middletown multi-use room.
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