During the public comment period at the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Governing Board meeting on Jan. 7, Denise Kennedy, a former principal of Cottonwood Middle School — now Cottonwood Community School — asked the board to yet again vote in favor of consolidating the school district with the Mingus Union High School District.
“I’m here tonight representing the Committee for Better Upper Verde Valley Schools,” Kennedy said at the meeting. “As you know, there’s been a group of local citizens who believe that consolidation of Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District and Mingus Union High School is in the best interest of our students.
“We firmly believe that streamlining and consolidating administrative and operation functions at both districts will result in considerable cost savings that will be reallocated into classrooms for the benefit of the students by consolidating both of our school districts. I am sure we can all agree that our teachers need to be paid more, and we all believe that a coordinated K-12 curriculum would help student achievement for both school districts.” Kennedy’s push comes after years of fighting on behalf of consolidation by the committee.
In 2018, a proposed vote that had been put on the ballot after a vote in favor by the COCSD governing board and a petition drive was put on hold in a settlement between the MUHSD Governing Board and the committee after Mingus filed a lawsuit.
Last year, Yavapai County Superior Court Judge David Mackey ruled that a consolidation vote could go forward without being able to be challenged in court again by the Mingus board.
The committee has begun the process of seeking to do just that, though it has not yet sought a petition drive. According to Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter, a minimum of 1,592 valid signatures would be required to put consolidation on the 2020 ballot.
Consolidation advocates may face an even more difficult time trying to get consolidation on the ballot, having lost the enthusiasm of the COCSD board, who last time around joined in seeking a consolidation vote.
“Our board has voted on this issue twice and we are not considering putting it on our agenda again at this time,” COCSD Board President Eric Marcus wrote in an email after the issue was brought up at the board meeting.
Though the MUHSD board has not discussed the issue yet this year, Board President Lori Drake, who had previously been a staunch opponent of consolidation, wrote in an email that she had not changed her view.
“When you combine Mingus Union High School and Cottonwood-Oak Creek schools, school officials will still be running a high school and several elementary schools,” Drake wrote. “Throughout the last decade all public school districts have cut everywhere. The special-interest group promises savings from duplicate positions and a reduction of administration. How do you achieve savings when many of those duplicate positions no longer exist? And bigger school districts generally have a larger administrative team.”
Recent legislation from the Arizona State Legislature eased the requirements for getting a consolidation vote on the ballot. Phil Terbell, president of the CBUVVS, said that his committee intends to move forward with a petition drive even without the support of either school board.
“We haven’t submitted any petitions or anything yet, but I do expect it to [happen] shortly,” Terbell said. “We think it’s still a very worthy project that we probably need to see through.”
