UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Five board members have been selected to lead the new district created by the unification of Upper Lake's elementary and high school districts.
The boards of the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and the Upper Lake Union High School District voted unanimously to unify this spring, as Lake County News has reported.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg appointed Keith Austin and Claudine Pedroncelli, who currently sit on the high school district board, and current elementary school board members Mel O'Meara, who was just reelected to the elementary school board in a district election Nov. 3, Diane Plante and Don Meri.
The Lucerne Elementary School District chose not to take part in the unification and will continue to serve kindergarten through eighth grade students independently.
The Lake County Board of Education – sitting as the County Committee on School District Organization – approved the unification at its Oct. 21 meeting.
The official date of unification will be July 1, 2016.
Falkenberg said he appointed the five board members after the California Board of Education approved waivers for the election process that gave him the selection power at its meeting in early November.
“If the state had not approved those waivers, this would have gone to an election,” Falkenberg said.
While he waited for the state board to take its vote, Falkenberg said he began accepting letters of interest from community members wanting to serve on the new district board.
Altogether 12 letters were submitted, Falkenberg said. Once the state approved the waivers, he moved forward with the selection process.
Falkenberg said he formed a selection panel that consisted of former local school superintendents including Chris Thomas, who had worked for the Lake County Office of Education; Bill MacDougall, retired Konocti Unified School District superintendent; and Wally Holbrook, Falkenberg's predecessor as county superintendent.
On Nov. 10, Falkenberg said all 12 applicants were interviewed and the selections made.
He said the new board's first meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the Upper Lake High School Library, 675 Clover Valley Road.
That meeting will be mostly for the purposes of organization, including establishing meeting dates and times, and electing officers, he said.
Falkenberg said the new board also is expected to meet in closed session at that time to discuss the process for hiring the new district's superintendent.
The contracts with Upper Lake Elementary Superintendent Valerie Gardner and Upper Lake High School Superintendent Patrick Iaccino will be null and void at the end of the school year, said Falkenberg.
The direction the new district board can take in hiring a superintendent “is really wide open,” he said.
Falkenberg said the new board could hire a consultant to fill the job on an interim basis, contract with the Lake County Office of Education temporarily or hire one of the existing superintendents.
In interviews earlier this year, district officials reported that Gardner was planning to retire in 2016, with Iaccino intending to retire in June 2017, when his current contract originally was set to end. That would make him available to lead the district during its first year.
“They really could do whatever they want,” said Falkenberg, but a decision needs to be made as soon as possible due to the amount of work that must be completed over the next several months, ahead of the July 1 unification date.
Along with the new board, the existing elementary and high school boards will remain in place until June 30, the end of the school year, Falkenberg said.
So far, based on the timelines Iaccino, Gardner and Falkenberg had given this spring, everything is on track and on schedule, Falkenberg said.
“That doesn't mean it hasn't been hectic,” he said.
And the County Office of Education is far from done with its involvement in the process he said.
“There's all kinds of work to be done in establishing a new district,” Falkenberg said.
Last week, the County Office of Education submitted a packet to the California Board of Equalization to make sure the tax base is appropriate for the new school district, he said.
Officials also must establish the new district with the California Department of Education, set up software systems to serve the new district, and merge and update financial data systems, according to Falkenberg.
For his office and for the Upper Lake districts, “It's quite a workload ahead of us,” he said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.