Sonora, CA — The Tuolumne County Grand Jury
report came out in July and included in the 77-page annual report was the
recommendation of conducting a study to determine if reorganizing the school
districts in the county would pay off.
Tuolumne County Superintendent Margie Bulkin,
as required by state law, has responded in a letter to the jury’s recommendations.
As previously reported here, the jury cited continued enrollment declines
in the county as one reason to look into whether reorganizing or
unifying the eleven districts would benefit students and reduce administrative
costs. Another direction was to create a cost-benefit analysis regarding
expanding the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to give the district greater
purchasing power related to items like cafeteria supplies, paper, bus storage
and maintenance and IT support. In the letter, Bulkin stated, “I concur with
the Grand Jury’s recommendation that ‘there exists a method, available to the
school districts, to save taxpayer funds through cooperation in purchasing and
perhaps in other areas of administration,’ and agree to effectively continue to
expand on this practice and explore ways to stretch funding and share resources
amongst school districts to mitigate the effects of diminishing enrollment.”
She added that she will continue to collaborate with all of the district
superintendents on JPA efforts and listed areas where the sharing of expenses
has been implemented.
In regards to an independent and definitive
study of the economic benefits and costs for reorganization paid for by public
or private agencies, Bulkin noted that a 2000 study on that subject found that
while there was practical support for unifying there were also disadvantages
that included a possible loss of school identities, loss of access, creation of
bureaucracies, reallocation of resources, and elimination of programs, among
other concerns. At length in the letter, she explained that due to her position
she is bound by neutrality stating, “I will not demote or promote efforts to
seek private funding or grants to fund a study.”
Bulkin ended the letter by
calling on the Grand Jury “to support to put kids first and focus their
investigative efforts towards investigating the lack of adequate State and
Federal funding for schools rather than asking schools with fixed funding to do
more with less.” She also indicated that each district superintendent will give
their own response after they address the report with their boards in open session.
August
11, 2016
myMotherLode.com
By Tracey Petersen
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