The Civil Grand Jury thinks consolidation would save funds for
education
With more school districts and less population than San
Francisco County, the San Benito County Grand Jury has called on
the county to
”
re-examine our local school system and see if some type of
re-design would reduce overhead costs
”
in its annual report.
The Grand Jury looked into the idea of consolidation because of
the dire financial situation of the state and county, foreman
Patrick McKenzie said. The Grand Jury report asked the San Benito
County Board of Education to create an independent panel that would
look into the financial and overall feasibility of consolidating
the county’s 12 school districts. Responses from the districts and
the boards are expected today, 90 days after the report was first
issued.
The Civil Grand Jury thinks consolidation would save funds for education
With more school districts and less population than San Francisco County, the San Benito County Grand Jury has called on the county to “re-examine our local school system and see if some type of re-design would reduce overhead costs” in its annual report.
The Grand Jury looked into the idea of consolidation because of the dire financial situation of the state and county, foreman Patrick McKenzie said. The Grand Jury report asked the San Benito County Board of Education to create an independent panel that would look into the financial and overall feasibility of consolidating the county’s 12 school districts. Responses from the districts and the boards are expected today, 90 days after the report was first issued.
“We felt it was necessary that we addressed this issue now because of the financial problems we are having,” McKenzie said.
The report outlines both the benefits and the issues of a consolidation of the county’s 12 districts and six superintendents. In comparison, San Francisco County has one district and superintendent despite a population that is nearly 15 times larger. San Benito County also has 58 board members for 23 of its schools, while San Francisco has five for its 100 schools.
The recommendation for consolidation of school districts was among other ideas from the civil grand jury this year. Others relating to consolidating agencies included recommendations to take similar approaches with law enforcement and fire protection.
A restructuring of the school districts could potentially bring the county savings of nearly $1.25 million, according to the report. Savings would come from the reorganization of superintendents and district board members. And at the same time, it would cost the county jobs by eliminating positions in each districts’ offices, contends the civil jury.
But San Benito County Office of Education Superintendent Mike Sanchez said he can’t agree with any possible savings because no such study has been done.
“We will take a look at it and move on from there,” Sanchez said. “We need to see what will work for us.”
Sanchez wasn’t sure if consolidation would help, but realized it was the school office’s responsibility to provide a good service to the county and its students, he said.
“We need to make sure it puts the district in a better position to serve the kids,” he said.
But for some, they are sure it would help, considering the high classroom sizes and statewide budget cuts.
Hollister Elementary School Teachers’ Association President Joe Rivas is a strong supporter of consolidation and the idea of streamlining the administrative aspects of the school districts.
“I don’t see how it couldn’t help,” Rivas said. “There are so many districts – it’s redundant.”
At the second-largest district, however, the financial situation isn’t nearly as bad as the Hollister district faces. So it’s unclear how much support there would be on both ends for such an idea. San Benito High School’s teachers’ union president, Mitch Huerta, could not be reached immediately for this story.
Rivas said the county could save thousands of dollars and eventually re-hire teachers to help spread out kids, lowering classroom sizes.
“If you are able to redistribute that back into the schools you would see changes,” he said.
Teachers could help disperse the kids to other classrooms, diluting some 40-student classrooms, he said. The high number of students makes working conditions harder – reducing the students’ physical space and forcing the teachers to focus more on handling the classroom instead of teaching it.
The consolidation of the districts would help just the congested classrooms, Rivas added.
McKenzie agreed, believing the benefits far outweighed the negatives.
“I know there will be a loss of jobs – of supervisors and officers – but we think it’s necessary to make our school system economically effective,” he said.
During its research the Grand Jury came to the conclusion that consolidation would allow the schools to work together better – bringing the administrative duties to one location.
“As the county grows, we need to get away from working as individual districts and doing separate work in all of our districts,” he said. “The county needs to grow together more.”
McKenzie also saw the benefit to class sizes because teachers would be able to freely move between schools – following the overflow of students. Still, despite the benefits, McKenzie isn’t optimistic that it will eventually happen.
“I would be surprised if they got together and did this,” he said. “It’s difficult because of the independent districts that there are. I hope they can solve it, but that bothers me.”
Rivas also sees the difficulties because those that would need to approve the district restructuring would need to effectively fire themselves, he said.
But Rivas said he thinks it needs to happen to save the county and its residents money.
“It’s all about the money,” he said.
