Another Look at Rendell Merge Plan

From Education Week.

If consolidation "would not necessitate the closure of individual schools", doesn't that run against the goal of a Pennsbury-Morrisville assimilation?

Unsurprisingly, the teachers union is not too sure either.

This is good. This is the way things should happen. Discuss the plans in the light of day, allow everyone to have their say, and find the compromise that will work. Everyone will suffer some and everyone will benefit some.

Too bad that's too much to ask for in Morrisville. The board majority is all about secrecy and surprise moves.

Published Online: February 5, 2009
Rendell Calls for 'Full-Scale' School Mergers
By The Associated Press

Gov. Ed Rendell called Wednesday for the first state-ordered consolidation of Pennsylvania school districts in at least 40 years, saying that fewer districts would mean a lighter local tax burden on property owners.

His proposal will probably meet resistance from local school boards whose members fear that mergers would close some schools and cause overcrowding in those that remain.

Rendell said during his state budget address that he wants a legislative commission to develop a plan to reduce the state's 500 public school districts to no more than 100, ideally. He is asking the Legislature to include money for the study in the 2009-10 budget.

The last major state-ordered consolidation of Pennsylvania school districts occurred in the 1960s, when the state had more than 2,000 districts.

Merging more districts would enable schools to operate more efficiently and spread the local share of school costs over a wider range of property owners in each of the remaining districts, he said.

"There is nothing sacrosanct about the need to maintain 500 separate schools districts across the state — each with its own staggering, and growing, administrative costs," Rendell said.

More than 40 percent of the state's school districts enroll fewer than 2,000 students each, and more than 80 percent enroll fewer than 5,000.

The current number of 501 school districts is expected to drop to 500 in July, when the Center Area and Monaca school districts northwest of Pittsburgh complete a merger. Declining enrollments have forced both districts to limit the types of courses they can offer to students.

Some other small districts that have explored dissolving boundaries with a neighbor have concluded that the costs of merging outweigh the benefits.

Officials in the rural Halifax and Millersburg school districts north of Harrisburg recently decided that a merger would not produce substantial savings, even though they already share some sports teams and academic programs.

Certain costs would increase because programs offered in just one school district would have to be made available throughout the newly merged school district, said Halifax superintendent Robert Hassinger.

For example, Halifax offers full-day kindergarten and preschool classes, while Millersburg provides only half-day kindergarten, he said.

Residents also feared a loss of community identity if any schools were required to close, Hassinger said. A summary of Rendell's proposal said the consolidations "would not necessitate the closure of individual schools."

"The assumption that bigger is better is incorrect," Hassinger said. "In smaller communities, where there is more connection, a sense of belonging is so essential."

Tim Allwein, a lobbyist for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said his organization hopes to work with the commission but is not convinced that school district mergers save large amounts of money. A merged school district might need to hire additional central-office administrators to oversee programs, he said.

"They're going to need to take a look at the supposed savings that would occur," Allwein said.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, has many questions, "not the least of which is how the goal of creating 100 districts from 500 was established," spokesman Wythe Keever said.

The commission would have one year to adopt as many as two merger plans and submit them to the Legislature for approval. If lawmakers reject both options, then the State Board of Education would have the authority to consolidate school districts.

Lawmakers said the idea of getting more school districts to consolidate was worth exploring.

Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the commission would probably have to recommend abolishing local school property taxes because differences in local tax rates often impede mergers.

"I'm hopeful, but it's a long-range project, and it's good that the governor is getting started on that," said Piccola, R-Dauphin.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi acknowledged that the prospect of dissolving boundaries is a "very sensitive political issue" for school districts.

"People have a strong identity with their local school district, and local control is ... an aspect of local school districts that is prized by Pennsylvanians," said Pileggi, R-Delaware. "But in this day and age, in 2009, to have 501 superintendents and assistant superintendents and curriculum directors is a very inefficient way to deliver educational services across the state."