Santa Clara County Grand Jury
• 2009-2010
Achieving School District Efficiency Through Consolidation,
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 1 findings
F1
Education andfinancial benefits can be achieved by consolidation and unification of certain county school districts. Lakeside Joint School District disagrees with this finding. There may be a financial benefit to consolidation of some districts, but an extensive analysis would need to be done in order to determine where there might be efficiencies. Research indicates that as district size increases a greater percentage of funds are spent on needs outside the classroom, e.g., for a single-school district the grounds person can walk around campus. When there are two campuses, the grounds person needs a truck! Lakeside is a high performing school district with a 2010 API of 963. If it'snot broken, don't fix it. To date, there is no research to substantiate that there is an educational benefit to consolidation and unification.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1A
The Boards of Trustees should unify Cambrian School District, Campbell Union School District, Moreland School District, Union School district, and Luther Burbank School District with Campbell Union High School district. Not applicable. This recommendation requires further analysis by the respective governing boards of those districts. Recommendations 1B The Boards of Trustees should unify Lakeside Joint School District, Loma Prieta Joint Union School District, Los Gatos Union School District and Saratoga Union School District with Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District. Lakeside Joint School District disagrees and believes that this is a community decision. Unification has been explored in the west valley on two occasions. Local communities had a unification election in the 1990'swhich was unsuccessful, and there is no indication that another attempt would garner community support. Unification was especially distasteful to the mountain communities.
R1C
The Boards of Trustees should unify Cupertino Union School District and Sunnyvale School District with Fremont Union High School District. Recommendation ID The Boards of Trustees should unifYLos Altos School district and Mountain View Whisman School district with Mountain View-Los Altos High School District. Not applicable. This recommendation requires further analysis by the respective governing boards of those districts. Recommendation IE The Boards of Trustees should consolidate Alum Rock Union School District and Mount Pleasant School District toform a new elementary/middle school district. Not applicable. This recommendation requires further analysis by the respective governing boards of those districts. Recommendation IF The Boards of Trustees should consolidate Berryessa Union School District and Orchard School District toform a new elementary/middle school district.