UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A week after the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District Board voted unanimously to unify with the Upper Lake Union High School District, the high school's board also gave its support to the plan.
The decision came during the board's Wednesday night meeting before an audience of about 10 community members, parents and elementary school board members Joanne Breton and Ron Raetz, elementary Principal/Superintendent Valerie Gardner and Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.
The two boards held a joint meeting last summer to explore unifying, which led to several joint meetings that ran from January through May to consider criteria that the state requires be explored in such circumstances.
While the process has seemed to move quickly over the past year, board members and school officials said that it had actually been years – decades, really – in the making, but had finally come to fruition with two boards and two superintendents aligned in the desire to join their resources for the benefit of students.
The unification discussion ahead of the vote begins at the 1:00:52 mark in the video above.
Among the parents who came to the Wednesday night meeting, support for unifying the districts also was unanimous.
Parent Sara Sanchez – who has made it a point to attend the joint board meetings, as well as the elementary board meeting last week – was on hand to urge the high school board to approve the unification resolution.
“We just all feel really strongly that this is what our schools need right now,” she said. “There's so much that can come out of it.”
She suggested it would strengthen programs and allow greater collaboration. “We just need to do what's best for our schools, for our kids, for our community.”
Board member Claudine Pedroncelli said in response to Sanchez's comments that the process of going through the steps to unify has brought forth parental involvement, which she said is very necessary.
Pedroncelli said she saw both newer parents and older parents coming forward to express frustrations, concerns and opinions. “This is something that really needs to happen on a regular basis.”
Another parent, Melanie Sneathen, said she believed unifying the districts would bring parents together, too.
“Even if we don't know what the what ifs are, we need to try it,” she said. “It couldn't be worse.”
Through the rest of this year, the Lake County Office of Education will be involved in the process, as it hosts public hearings and prepares information to present to the State Board of Education.
In addition, Falkenberg will be in charge of appointing by December a new board to represent the newly unified district. That board will then work with the existing elementary and high school boards until the unification officially takes place on July 1, 2016.
In going over the unification resolution, Upper Lake High Principal/Superintendent Pat Iaccino explained that county Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley had suggested that the third board should be in service for 18 months – not six – after its appointment, which will keep the district in its current odd-year election cycle.
Iaccino said that means that in 2017, there will be a board election with five open seats. The top three vote getters will have four-year terms, with the fourth- and fifth-ranked candidates winning two-year terms, which will institute the stagger to prevent all seats being up for election at once going forward.
Board member Valerie Duncan – also a teacher in the elementary district – said that she pushed for unification when she ran for the board.
“I'm glad we're here,” she said, adding that she was sorry it took so long.
“It's been a long road. It's been a very long road,” said Pedroncelli. “We never know how change will come about, but I think this is really long overdue.”
Now, she said they needed to get back to the issue at hand – educating young people.
“We've been trying to do this forever,” said Raetz from the audience, adding that the real miracle is that they had two superintendents who wanted to do it, with the boards willing to work with those administrators.
Board President Keith Austin talked about having the patience to let things happen at the right time. “I see perfect timing,” both in the boards and the superintendents, he said.
Gardner, explaining her board's unanimous vote to unify, told the high school board, “Their focus really is on the students.”
She agreed with Austin about the issue of timing, and said that everyone is focused on the children.
The board then took the unanimous vote to approve the unification resolution, getting a round of applause afterward.
Later in the meeting, during further remarks on the unification issue, Austin asked Iaccino, “What's next?”
Iaccino said that before they left after the meeting he would get all of the board members' signatures on the resolution, which will be forwarded to Falkenberg, who already had the elementary school board's approved resolution.
The Lucerne Elementary School District Board, which also met on Wednesday, was set to accept its own resolution opting out of being included in the unification, which will be sent to Falkenberg, Iaccino said.
The Lake County Board of Education is scheduled to hold hearings on June 24, after which the resolutions along with waivers to bypass the voter election process must be sent to the state, he said.
The goal, said Iaccino, was that the unification would go before the State Board of Education at its November meeting, at which time it would be on the board's consent agenda.
“Once that happens, we've got a lot of work to do,” said Iaccino.
He and Gardner already have started meeting to begin that work – including looking at combining both districts' approaches to facilities, budgeting, transportation, curriculum and instruction, and staff development, as well as negotiations with unions.
Noting that because of her employee status that she no longer will be able to serve on the unified board, Duncan encouraged her colleagues to apply for the new board.
Board member Wanda Quitiquit said she was sensing change in the air.
Duncan said she was excited about the next steps in the unification process, and thanked parents for their involvement.
Board member Rich Swaney recalled having pledged to pursue unification when he was elected.
“Now is where the work starts,” said Austin.
Falkenberg gave the board an overview of the tentative timeline for the Lake County Board of Education – sitting as the Lake County Committee on School District Organization – and its process ahead.
With the two districts having approved their unification resolutions, on June 12 a notice of public hearing will be published, with Falkenberg to review the districts' unification documents from June 11 to 16.
Those documents will then be provided to the county committee on June 17, with written notice to be provided to the Lake Local Area Formation Commission on June 18.
The Committee on School District Organization will then hold two public hearings on June 24 – one at 5 p.m. at Lucerne Elementary School and another at 7 p.m. at Upper Lake High. The county school board will consider approval on Aug. 19 ahead of submitting it to the State Board of Education by Aug. 26.
Pending approval of the waivers by the State Board of Education, on Sept. 15 Falkenberg will announce the posting for the new board applications, with the timeline anticipating the unification to go before the state Nov. 4 and 5.
Falkenberg has tentatively planned for new board member interviews on Nov. 10 and new board appointments on Nov. 18.
Following the adjournment of the meeting, Falkenberg told Lake County News that he anticipates the process for his office to be fairly “minimalistic” because of all the work the Upper Lake school districts have done to this point.
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Upper Lake High School Board votes to unify with elementary district
- Elizabeth Larson
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