Grand Jury report suggests school district consolidation as cost-saving measure

Sonoma County has one of the highest numbers of school districts
in the State, according to a recent Grand Jury report, suggesting
school district consolidation as a “possible” cost saving measure
that “might” also improve education.
Not all educators are convinced, however, and at least one
vehemently disagrees.
Sonoma County is home to more than 70,000 students and 40
different school districts.
Schools are seeing reductions in state revenue, declining
enrollment, teachers and classified staff layoffs and a rise in
charter school development, which puts the operation of school
districts at risk, the Sonoma County Civil Grand Jury states in its
report, which was created following interviews with principals,
district superintendents, past and present county superintendents,
school board trustees, members of the Sonoma County Board of
Supervisors and an aide to a local state senator, among others.
Most of the people interviewed agreed the current school
district configuration is not financially sustainable and that
there could be dollars saved by school district
consolidation/unification, the Grand Jury states in the report’s
summary.
However, consolidation/unification might not work for everyone
and financial savings might not result in an improved educational
outcome for students, the report states.
On the other hand, it might, or so seems to be the mixed message
found throughout the report.
“The Grand Jury believes better education, not cost savings, is
the most compelling benefit that school district
consolidation/unification may achieve. Improved education can take
place through articulation and the implementation of some
standardized teaching methods, which will provide a better focus to
get students the best education possible,” the report states,
citing the success of Twin Rivers School District in Sacramento — a
consolidation of four districts that since becoming one about three
years ago has seen better test scores.
Twin Rivers has also gone up 10 percent in graduation rates,
district-wide, since the consolidation, according to its Director
of Communications Trinette Marquis.
“We are liking the numbers,” Marquis said. “The other thing that
has been really helpful when education funding has been cut
dramatically, is that we have been able to cut central office
administration by about half,” she said. 
Before the consolidation, an elementary school district and a
high school district were serving the same families, which created
a challenge, Marquis said.
The elementary district would claim they had their students
prepared and at level when they sent them to the high school
district, and the high school district would claim the students
were coming in unprepared.
“Lots of finger pointing,” she said.
Now, as one district, there is opportunity to realign grade
levels and there’s collaborative professional development among
school sites. The district also becomes more familiar with its
families, because it serves them from preschool through high school
graduation, she said.
While unification/consolidation appears to have worked well for
this district, it’s not the answer for all school districts,
according to those who have done studies and decided to stay on
their own.
Take Gravenstein Union School District for example, which has
been involved in a couple of different studies — none of which show
that the little district in Sebastopol would save money with
consolidation, according to its Superintendent Linda LaMarre.
“If a district is of a small size but is able to provide all
programs to students and still operate in the black, then a smaller
district and a smaller school is better for students,” she said.
“If you look across the state, the districts that are in trouble
financially, most of them are larger unified districts. Many times
this means less accountability,” LaMarre said, adding, “But I do
think it needs to be looked at individually.”
GUSD Board President Jim Horn — who read the Grand Jury report
on its website — said it contains “many factual errors and many
unsupported conclusions.”
For example, he said the report states the last consolidation
study was initiated in 2004, but in fact there have been four
studies done in the last 10 years, three of them since 2004, all of
which involved West County schools. Furthermore, he said none of
those studies have shown any financial or educational advantage
from consolidation.
Horn also disagreed with the test scores mentioned by the Grand
Jury.
“The test scores they cite from the Twin Rivers Unified School
District don’t hold up either,” said Horn, who did some research of
his own on the California Department of Education’s website.
“Since unification (in 2008) Twin Rivers’ API scores have gone
up by 25 points. The state average (from 2008 to 2010) has gone up
by 27 points. Here in Sonoma County, scores in Monte Rio and
Roseland, both small, unconsolidated districts, have gone up by 50
points — twice the improvement in Twin Rivers,” he said, adding,
“Twin Rivers probably did improve, but basically everyone in the
state improved and I don’t think you can use their improvement as
an argument for unification.
“The Grand Jury has been doing this for years. It’s a top down
push to try to force school districts to consolidate,” Horn said,
noting the problems facing school districts, such as declining
state funding, declining enrollment and the explosion of charter
schools, have absolutely nothing to do with consolidation.
Losing local control and the ability to tailor schools and
curriculum to the local community, and losing the ability to
attract students from other areas are among the disadvantages to
school district consolidation, Horn said.
West Sonoma County Union High School District Superintendent
Keller McDonald said there have been several consolidation studies
in West County schools in recent years. Monte Rio and Guerneville
school districts at numerous public board meetings discussed and
considered consolidation. Twin Hills and Sebastopol Union school
districts also considered consolidation, he said.
“None of those studies have yielded convincing irrefutable
conclusions that consolidation/unification would result in higher
levels of student achievement or significant financial savings,”
McDonald said. “Unified districts do enjoy some advantages for
curriculum development and instructional support over districts
that are not unified. However, in Sonoma County there are a number
of elementary districts that are extremely high performing, that
are not unified with a high school district.”
Consolidation may make sense for some school districts, but the
districts that are considering consolidation have to really study
all of the ramifications before they decide what is best, McDonald
said, noting in some cases there is actually a “financial
disincentive” or loss from consolidating. 
“That is what Monte Rio Union and Gravenstein Union school
districts discovered when they studied consolidation a couple years
ago. In laymans terms, the state education funding formulas provide
no clear financial incentives to consolidate,” McDonald said.
The communities in West County have “not expressed significant
interest” in creating one or more unified school districts, the
superintendent said when asked if the high school district had
considered consolidation.
“I think there are a number of things folks are concerned with,
such as decrease in local control and losing access to their
elected school board members. And there is also a concern that over
time there would be a decision to close one or more schools, which
could result in larger class sizes, longer drives to school, etc.,”
he said.
Before assuming that consolidating or unifying school districts
will benefit local communities, people need to recognize the many
ways that schools in West County and across Sonoma County already
work together to increase student achievement and reduce costs,
McDonald said.
Middle schools and high school teachers coordinate curriculum
and instruction, and districts work together to improve achievement
of English Language Learners. Districts already share staff with
specialized credentials and qualifications, share administrators
and business services, coordinate bus transportation, and purchase
insurance, technology services and equipment as a group to save
money, McDonald said.
“When we look under the surface, consolidation or unification
may not be nearly as beneficial for many districts as they appear
at first glance,” McDonald said.
While the Grand Jury does “not suggest that the
consolidation/unification of school districts is a panacea that
will cure all educational and financial problems” it does feel it
may be appropriate in certain situations, and “make expenditures
more productive and improve student achievement.”
The Grand Jury recommends that districts experiencing just such
problems ask Sonoma County Office of Education to do a study of
potential consolidation/unification, according to the report.
Laura McCutcheon can be reached at la***@so********.com.