One of the key barriers of progress in the conversation of consolidation between Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District and Mingus Union High School District has been disputes in getting the right data.
The Advisory Committee for Consolidation asked business managers from both districts to present their findings on what a consolidated school district would look like. They were asked to do this amidst the elephant in the room that for many, their jobs would be on the line if consolidation were to take place.
Mingus Union Business Manager Lynn Leonard said that she and David Snyder from COCSD both tried to provide the facts. The way they saw it, consolidating and unifying the two districts would cost more than the possible savings that would come with eliminating redundancies. This scenario is only one way to consolidate the districts, Snyder said during a presentation to the Advisory Committee of MUHSD and COCSD on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
“We have found that there are still a lot of questions,” he said. “This presentation does not equal a definitive piece, rather a conversation starter.” In the joint-presentation’s version of a consolidated school district, the governing board would include one superintendent and an executive assistant.
There would be six principals and one business director. There would also be one director for special education, information technology, human resources, food service, transportation and maintenance. Some of the methodology and sources used to conduct the study came from current salary amounts.
“Salary amounts for the unified district are averages taken from the information we have received from similar-sized districts in Arizona,” according to the study. “The organization chart was developed to answer the question of, ‘If unification took place tomorrow, what would the structure look like by integrating existing personnel and eliminating duplicate positions?’”
In total, just over $366,000 would potentially be saved, according to their findings. One example of potential savings that would come with consolidating the school districts would be in eliminating two superintendent and two executive assistant positions.
“Currently the districts pay a total of $296,930 for two superintendents and two executive assistants,” according to the presentation. “In a unified district, one superintendent position and one executive assistant position would be eliminated.”
According to their findings, a unified superintendent salary would be $125,000, and a unified executive assistant salary would be $41,500. Potential savings would amount to $130,430. However, their study also found a $650,000 annual cost in equalizing teacher salaries, and an additional $170,000 was estimated in annual transportation losses.
Some questions still left unanswered include:
- Capital assets split with Clarkdale Jerome School District
- Equalization of classified salaries
- Legal fees
- Infrastructure changes to merge districts
Committee member and MUHSD Governing Board member Jim Ledbetter said he felt the business managers gave “important, vital information. “It was refreshing to receive additional expertise as to what unification would actually do, in practice, to the schools,” he said.
Ledbetter noted that the business managers did well in pointing out that there are still questions that need to be answered.
“This includes their mentioning the disparity in classified staff pay in addition to the disparity in teacher salaries,” he said. “There would be no money in the unified district to resolve these salary differences, which, when combined will likely exceed an annual expense of $1 million to a unified district.”
Ledbetter said that the decision to unify must come from somewhere other than money.
“We have learned that the savings from a reduction in administrative employees is outweighed by reductions in funding,” he said. “There would be no additional classroom dollars. There would be no monies to equalize salaries, but, by choosing to exclude the Clarkdale Jerome District, there would be a claim against the hard assets of a unified district.”
In short, Ledbetter believes the financial outlook of a unified district is dismal.
“A unified district will ultimately lead to an increased tax burden to be borne by the property owners in the smaller, unified district,” Ledbetter said.
Further Consultation
Also at the consolidation meeting, the board approved inquiring former MUHSD interim superintendent Jack Keegan to see if he would be a consultant in consolidation talks.
“There are still lots of questions,” said consolidation committee member Jason Finger, who is also a member of the COCSD board.
“I would like to get his take on the report.” Keegan would be hired for $100 an hour.
The cost would not exceed $2,000, and each district is capped at contributing $1,000.
“A $1,000 expenditure is well worth it,” said board member Phil Terbell.
Kelcie Grega can be reached at 634-8551 or email kgrega@larsonnewspapers.com
