San Benito County Superintendent of Schools Tim Foley refers to
the county’s plethora of school districts as a
”
historical artifact.
”
San Benito County Superintendent of Schools Tim Foley refers to the county’s plethora of school districts as a “historical artifact.”
There are 11,381 students enrolled in county schools, which are divided into 11 school districts. Jefferson School District in Paicines is the smallest with nine students while Hollister School District is the largest with 6,004, according to figures based on the 2002-03 Average Daily Attendance Summary, revised Jan. 17.
“There is a community nucleus around these (smaller) schools,” Foley said. “They provide excellent education with lots of community input. They provide an identity.”
The smaller schools include Jefferson, Cienega, Spring Grove, Panoche and Willow Grove Union.
Five of the county’s school districts are in Hollister. One is in San Juan, one in Tres Pinos, three in Paicines and one in rural King City.
While the state encouraged consolidation of smaller school districts in the 1960s, some with one school with fewer than 10 students still exist in San Benito County.
Proponents of consolidation argue that operating expenses would be decreased with only one or two school districts in a county. Foley said the county’s districts are run “pretty cheaply.”
Each district has at least one teacher and a principal, which could be the same person. For a district to have a superintendent there must be at least eight teachers in the district, Foley said. A teacher or principal is given a stipend to do administrative work – such as filling out government forms – that a superintendent would normally do, he said.
Having numerous districts also allows the community to have more representation through each district’s board of trustees. Each board usually has five members, and Foley said the boards “reflect the identity of the community.”
“These districts are far more grass roots, which I think is very healthy,” he said.
Jefferson School Principal Katharine Green – the South County school’s only teacher – doesn’t see an option to having so many school districts in the county since some rural schools are far from Hollister.
Jefferson School is 35 miles from the city, Green said.
“(Small school districts) are run by board members who live in the area. They understand the needs of the students out here,” she said. “People in Hollister don’t even know we exist.”
Panoche School District Board Member Kim Lippert agrees that the county’s smaller schools and their interests could be ignored if the county only had two or three districts.
“We could get left out – swept under the rug,” Lippert said. “The bigger districts would decide everything. The bigger district policies don’t work the same as the little ones.”
Jefferson, like Panoche, is a K-8 school. Since there are less than 10 students at Jefferson, they are all in the same classroom.
After graduation, students must find a way to get to San Benito High School because the SBHS District does not provide busing for students who live that far from Hollister, Green said. She described the situation as a “huge hardship.”
Jefferson usually competes with Panoche School as the smallest school in the state, Green said.
She said there are downsides to being at such small schools. For one, they can’t offer athletic teams. And right now, her students can’t even play sports during physical education because there are so few of them.
“But I can’t see putting those kids on a bus for an hour to get to Hollister,” Green said. “Once they get there, they’re not going to get the attention … Each school district has a different feel to it. If you lump them all together, you’ll lose so much.”
DistrictEnrollment
Bitterwater-Tully Unified School District22
Cienega Union School District 8
Jefferson School District9
North County Joint Union School District504
Panoche School District11
Southside School District215
Tres Pinos Union School District123
Willow Grove Union School District29
Aromas-San Juan Unified School District1,394
Hollister School District6,004
San Benito High School District2,885
San Benito County Office of Education147
San Benito County Total Enrollment11,381
Numbers based on the 2002-03 Average Daily Attendance Summary, revised Jan. 17. Provided by Tim Foley, San Benito County Superintendent of Schools.
