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State OKs school unification |
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Monday, 11 January 2010 |
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By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
1-9-2010 The State Board of Education voted Jan. 7 unanimously in favor of the unification of Bishop’s high school and elementary school districts. School board members said they received an e-mail at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday from Superintendent of both districts Barry Simpson about the good news.
“Yes, it is exciting,” Inyo County Superintendent of Schools Terry McAteer said. “I’m thrilled because the (state) board was excited to make this happen. They were thrilled that they could do this.”
This approval by the state board allows the unification process to bypass local municipal elections, saving taxpayers the cost of an election.
And, the unification could not come at a more opportune time, according to McAteer.
In September, McAteer said that state law allows annual, ongoing funding for “leveling up” of salaries for all employes within the same district. He and staff discovered that the 2009-10 school year is an “apex” of teacher salary discrepancies between the two districts.
McAteer said Friday that under that law, the new district should receive “just under $1 million dollars” to even out any pay-scale discrepancies between the two existing districts. He said this amount of money would have been greater, lower or lost altogether if the unification process was delayed any longer beyond July 1, 2010, the beginning of the new fiscal and school year.
This will be an ongoing, annual lump of cash for the “leveling up” process. The actual cost of the process is $400,000, creating a net increase of more than $500,000 a year for the new district.
The salary schedules and a new budget will be up to a new board to decide and it will be the first thing the new board will do, McAteer said.
The state board also authorized McAteer to appoint an interim school board that will be in place to ready the new unified district for business until the school election in June.
“The elementary board and the high school board will be winding down their business while the interim board will be ramping up for business,” McAteer said. He added that he chose existing board members as there needs to be some experience and continuity in this important next four months.
The interim board will be comprised of four members from the existing boards – Linda Arnold and Taema Weiss from the elementary board and Stuart Hiroyasu and John Clair from the high school board. Rounding out the board will be former Inyo County Supervisor Julie Bear.
McAteer said he chose the board in a way not to give any candidates in June the power of incumbency. “I chose four members of the existing boards who have decided not to run for the unified board. I chose Julie because she has all the requisite public service experience to handle this kind of challenge.” All five members have agreed to serve.
There have been reports that some residents were not in favor of keeping the unification plan out of voters’ hands, but Clair said Friday he did not recall one official note of opposition to the way the process was moving forward.
McAteer has also established the first meeting of the interim board for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20, at the Bishop Activity Center. One of the agenda items for that meeting is the appointment of a superintendent. Until that appointment is made, McAteer will serve in that capacity.
Simpson was en route to Bishop from Sacramento on Friday and so was unavailable for comment.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 January 2010 )
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