The Elephant in the Room

During last week’s final budget hearing for the school district, one audience member mentioned, without garnering a response, the unspoken issue the school board will have to face if current trends continue.

Consolidation.

Yes, the dirty word of this tax season.

But if current trends of declining enrollment, which show no sign of abating, and declining property values, which local realtor Jay Rish said were certainly not changing soon, continue, the school board must consider consolidation.

This was one of many recommendations from the budget committee appointed by the district during the run-up to the March one-mill referendum, and it should be one the board takes to heart.

The feasibility of maintaining six schools in a county in which the student population has slipped under 2,000 and continues to slide seems more and more financially untenable by the day.

There would certainly be resistance, from the communities which derive considerable identity from their schools, and from parents and students, but the cost savings, and relief for taxpayers, is too significant to ignore.

The county’s economic dynamics might change, as school officials have noted when the subject is broached.

A new hospital will open early next year, Sacred Heart officials reassure, and a renewable energy plant and an operational port figure to foster an influx of workers and families to the county.

The generation, if accomplished, of a more diversified economy cries out for consolidation, as the school district could apply more money to the classroom to foster broader course offerings, especially the kind of vocational education to prepare students for the new industries that could turn the county around economically.

But there are no promises that the hospital, port or renewable energy plant will come to fruition until the “doors” are open, and the reality of today is that the school board faces trends that seem intractable.

The school board should be examining how school consolidation was accomplished in counties such as neighboring Franklin and how the state might assist, in the form of capital outlay dollars which have been provided to counties such as Franklin and Gadsden, to facilitate consolidation.

The district has a potentially valuable piece of property in Highland View it could use to sell or swap to acquire suitable land in White City or Howard Creek or other central locations in the county.

If not consolidation of all schools, the district should consider another recommendation of the budget committee and that is consolidating elementary and middle schools at each end of the county.

While hardly ideal, given the wide range of student ages involved, the district long operated without a middle school in Wewahitchka and a model for how to separate age groups is already in place in the layouts at each high school/middle school complex.

Consolidation would foster more concentrated and efficient use of resources – particularly transportation which eats a significant portion of the budget – and would provide an opportunity for more course offerings and distance learning and dual enrollment opportunities.

It would also bring the district more operationally in line with the numbers of students it serves, which would surely ultimately mean a lesser burden on taxpayers.

Maybe most importantly, consolidating the schools would serve as an example, a model, for the county to consider true consolidation in the form of county-wide voting and a Board of County Commissioners not lorded over by three votes that hold the key to the kingdom.

A committee of smart, thoughtful and thorough individuals provided such a recommendation to the district as part of the overall campaign to pass the additional one-mill levy for schools.

Given the source, the recommendation is worth a look, if for no other reason than as preparation for contingencies if the current trends that are buffeting the district and taxpayers are not reversed.