CON: UNIFICATION MAY KILL EFFICIENCY.

Byline: Kerry Klegg

Interest has piqued again in the possibility of unifying the five independent Santa Clarita Valley school districts into one K-12 district encompassing the attendance areas of the William S. Hart Union High School District. This interest was stimulated by the formation of a citizen group in Canyon Country to possibly pursue the formation of a separate Canyon Country Unified District, as well as the announcement by the Castaic Union School District that it would undertake a feasibility study on the formation of a unified district there.

While the Castaic decision may have been precipitated by the recent defeat of Measure S, a Hart school construction bond that would have built a high school in Castaic, the bond had little to do with events in Canyon Country.

In fact, the unification study in Canyon Country was undertaken before the Hart bond was even proposed and indicated that more than 60 percent of our constituents were interested in the formation of a new unified high school district along the boundaries of the elementary district. There are both practical and emotional reasons why unification may be a good or bad idea, but whether unification should create one large K-12 district or three small districts has yet to be determined.

The Newhall, Saugus, Sulphur Springs and Castaic districts have been in existence for more than 100 years and preceded the formation of the Hart district. All but Castaic gave up their seventh and eighth grades to the new district so a viable high school population would exist.

Regardless, the districts are rooted in strong community identities and local governance structures that promote community involvement and which are response to the needs of their students.

Several previous attempts at unification within the Hart district have occurred, most recently in the early 1980s. This attempt was rejected by the state Board of Education in part because of strong objections from the elementary districts, whose members viewed a single unification as a dilution of their ability to locally set the goals and vision of their education programs. It is not likely that these ideals have changed.

Arguments favoring single district unifications usually cite economy of scale as a major factor. Unified districts often save in areas such as food services, transportation, warehousing and staff development, where larger purchases significantly reduce costs.

However, similar economies can be obtained with groups of districts by forming consortiums. The Santa Clarita School Food Services Agency serves five local school districts and has proven cost-effective. Consortia exist in the valley for staff development and special education and others can be formed for warehousing, and perhaps transportation. Thus, economy alone is not a motivating force for a single unification.

In published studies by the state Board of Education on the most effective size for unified school district students, populations of 10,000 to 20,000 seem to be the most cost-effective and responsive to the community.

Formation of a single unified district in the Santa Clarita Valley would result in a student population of more than 45,000 and would qualify as one of the larger districts in Los Angeles County. Each of the elementary districts could form a unified district along existing boundaries, with 12,000 to 20,000 students, as substantiated by the Sulphur Springs study. It is unlikely that a large Santa Clarita Valley unified district would be efficient or cost-effective, and the most likely scenario is that the overall cost of a single unification would be the loss of dollars targeted to elementary sites.

If unification in any form is to proceed, it must involve both the advantages and disadvantages of the resulting district configuration, as well as the overall impact on the education of our student population. There are distinct advantages to the formation of smaller, more efficient and locally governed unified districts.

Whether this happens in the Santa Clarita Valley could be determined by well-informed voters who decide what is best for their community.