EDITORIAL: Measure B: Yes for Better Schools

By The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Oct. 22–After 60 years of battles, three of Sacramento’s north area communities — Rio Linda, North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights — have a significant opportunity to make a major change to improve education.

On Nov. 6, voters go to the polls to decide whether to create a single K-12 school district — rather than stick with a fragmented set of elementary school districts and a separate high school district. That fragmentation may have worked when the north Sacramento area was mostly rural. But in today’s interconnected urban environment, that system doesn’t work. It has too much bureaucracy.

We urge a Yes vote on Measure B to create a new district. This unification is overdue.

The proposed new school district would unify four school districts in the north area: three elementary districts (Rio Linda Union, North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights) and one high school district (Grant Joint Union).

If voters approve Measure B, these four districts would disappear; the 17,000 elementary and 14,000 secondary students in the new North Area Unified School District would stay at their same schools. No students would be displaced or transferred.

But the north area communities would get a new seven-member school board and a new superintendent and central administration.

Students deserve the improved coordination of the elementary and middle school transition that a unified district would bring. They deserve consideration of options, such as K-8 or 6-8 grade groupings. They should not have to be locked into the current K-6, 7-12 configuration. And the community deserves a more efficient use of resources than the current wasteful system, which duplicates services across four districts.

The unified district would get more money from the state — about $6,262 for each student, an 8 percent per student increase for the four separate districts. This adds about $12.5 million in new money for the schools that can go toward classroom teaching.

The Elverta (K-8) and Robla (K-6) elementary school districts have chosen not to be included in the unification — but they can join later as they see how it works. If Measure B passes, these districts would still send their students to the same secondary schools as they do now, but those schools would be in a new unified district.

There is no question that unification is an uphill battle. Between 1946 and 1972, north area unification proposals went to the voters seven times and were defeated each time. Fortunately, community leaders and educators increasingly realize that continued fragmentation has had significant negative consequences for the community.

The separate districts have been grinding along for years, not providing the best education for students. It’s time to try something new.

A few opponents see this unification in old terms, as a “takeover” by the Grant Joint Union High School District. That’s not so. This latest effort came after three elementary schools districts got together to unify the K-12 program. If voters approve it, Grant will disappear into a new entity.

The 168,000 people who live in the north area school districts deserve a better education system. Voters should cast Yes ballots on Measure B on Nov. 6 to bring together the best of four districts into a single district.

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