School District Consolidation: Some Thoughts
Dec 2nd, 2009 by thatsElbert
I’d like to cover some of my thoughts regarding the discussion of school consolidation.
Let’s look at the money. The possibility of saving $45,469,422 is slim to none. There’s a number of things that should be considered.
We will need to pay a hefty salary to a superintendent for the large districts like we would have. Of course, you could pay less and scare away talented leaders. In addition, the school board members would probably demand or need a salary for their services. After all, we pay our county council members, so why not county-wide school board members?
The new consolidated district will need a new centralized building to house all those district offices. To do this, a building will be leased until one is built. That is more cash going out. The moving and merging of services and data will cost us. Guaranteed, that operation won’t be small change.
I am certain that the current administrators targeted for the chopping block will do what they can to make themselves valuable enough to keep. I’m not saying that this behavior is bad, after all wouldn’t you do what you could to keep your job, especially in this tough job market? If any are retained, that eats into the supposed savings.
Who is to say that the positions eliminated won’t be recreated in the new district? The same amount of work needs to be done with a significant drop in staff to do it. I would say that reduction won’t last long at all. It will be said that we need more help to meet the demands of such a large district. Certainly those positions will be paid either out of state money or local money.
Simply put, I think the numbers presented are inflated. If the changes were to happen as described, any savings would not happen overnight. It would take a couple of years. The likelihood of the county-wide conversion will take money to happen, which may eat up the supposed savings that we need now, not years out.
On a local level, there are several negative effects of a merger. Districts with a smaller school tax burden will suddenly and sharply see their annual tax bill go up. Those taxes will need to be in line with the other districts to whom they will be joined. This will be needed to cover the local portion of the teacher and other staff salaries, which will go up to make them uniform across the district.
The Laurel School District (my district) will be going to referendum in February to raise funds for new buildings. Do you think a county-centered district will give a rat’s behind about a referendum just to pay for Laurel’s buildings? I’m not optimistic.
Let’s cover some other less dollar-oriented issues. School board members stand a greater chance of being disconnected from those they should be representing. In my district, one board member lives right around the corner from me. The rest don’t live that far away. The likelihood of seeing one of them at the grocery store, convenience store, or a local restaurant is very high and does happen. That will evaporate with a county-wide district.
Currently school boards are elected without declaring their party affiliation. You can kiss that goodbye with consolidation. Do you think politics is involved in school boards now? You ain’t seen nothing yet!
How about the election of superintendents? That might not be out of the picture.
What seems odd to me is the support of a radical reduction of government from liberals. It’s out of character. These would be the same that would decry similar action in a private company, pointing out for criticism the loss of jobs and the increase of the workload for those that remain. I think the consolidation of power into a small group of left-leaning leaders is in fact the ultimate aim.
Don’t get me wrong. Any way we can cut fat from a budget needs to be examined. That is welcomed. What is being proposed financially is just smoke and mirrors. In the end, there will be no change at all or it may mean a more expense school system. That would mean higher local taxes, eventually becoming a greater state tax burden, and a severe loss of local control of the education of the children of Delaware.
I agree 100%. The consolidation will be noting but the same only bigger.
We already had consolidation around 30 years ago. It didn’t save much then. Let’s just get rid of districts and make each school like a charter. That is the only way to eliminate administration. Parents would have more control and choice. The individual would be impowered. Anything else is smoke and mirrors. As Frank said no one will be fired, they will just be retitled.
[...] crossposted on DelawarePolitics.net) [...]
Every state effort to reform education is a step in the wrong direction. We argue, should the state interfere with local districts in this way, or in that way? Our officials never seem to get around to discussing the obvious alternative of simply removing Dover from the problem. In a way, Dover is the problem. Larger school districts are not the answer. Queen Anne’s County has two high schools, and many students must get up hours in advance and endure a ridiculously long bus ride. Money might be saved in consolidation (or might not), but a sense of community will be lost, which is much more important to education than bureaucratic control.
Consolidation is a worthy cause and it should be done. There is absolutely no need for 19 Directors of all of the different titles such as curriculum and buildings. We also have way too many administrators who make huge salaries who seem to have little or no impact on the classroom.
The key is to move away from the antiquated school district model and move to making each and every principal the Captain of their ship with the tools needed to perform and the accountability to be let go if they do not.
I attended public school in Delaware and not for one minute could I tell you which district I was a part of at any point. I attended a school not a district.
While we dither over school districts and staffs our paraprofessionals are grossly underpaid which has a direct effect on the classroom.
Mike Protack
Granted, the Feasibility Study that was done a few years ago focused on Kent and Sussex alone but, see the last paragraph of Page 34 in Summary and Conclusions:
http://www.doe.k12.de.us/reports_data/files/de_houseresolut54.pdf
It wouldn’t save a dime …
I made my larger points in my own post, so let me say that Elbert and myself share the same fears. Elbert didn’t mention it but I did , that if we are willing to allow this state consolidation, why not just allow the federal government to consolidate all of the nations schools. Why not send one national board member from Delaware to D.C. , to be one of fifty? Yes we need to save money , but not at the expence of creating larger government and by giving up what little local control we still have over how our money is spent.
No one has mentioned if this would do away with school choicing. What if you live in an area of the consolidation that has a high number of violent acts ? Will you be able to move your child to another section of the consolidation ? Right now you can choice your child out of a district that you feel is dangerous. Right now you get to choose you board members,don’t be surprised that if this consolidation goes through that we end up with appointed members , like they have at the Tech schools. Also just like the Tech schools you will most likely lose the ability to vote for tax hikes, the state will determine the increases and when.
So bottom line is that we should not be willing to give up our freedom of choice . Government , governs best at the local level. If we want to save money , then we should get the state and federal government out of our local districts with all of their un-funded mandates. And tell the state to keep what funds it does send to the seperate districts and see how much money that saves the state. Those funds are just another way for the state and federal governments to exercise power over local issues.
Mike P., downstate there is a lot of pride about one’s district. I don’t know of anyone who does not know if they are in Capital or CR, Milford or Lake, Cape or Indian River, Seaford or Woodbridge. There is a healthy rivalry and not just in sports. It is in the Odyssey of the Mind, test scores, and else where. That emotional investment will be a powerful impediment to this proposal.
I went to private school and my kids home or charter so I don’t have it. I am just looking at the fact that it won’t work because it hasn’t. We could allow the districts to join together voluntarily with each other and charter schools to form purchasing pools not only for goods but services such as transportation, technology, and food. I would even allow private and home school groups to join. I hope to write more on that later.
The only thing that will be ‘consolidated’ is power and propaganda. I concur with David; Charterization. This will foster competition (something illiberals inherently fear) and specialization, leading to academic success.
David is right, there is a lot of pride in your school district. At age 5 I could tell you what school and school district I attended. Actually that was only 5 years after the Indian River School District was formed. Consolidation will destroy that.
Mike, I have considered your plan. I’m not convinced that it would be as effective as you may think. It would be better to remove some of the influence of DC & Dover and allow the local leaders in the districts to make good choices for our students. In my opinion the more local influence, the better the performance of students.