The major issue facing Verde Valley voters this election cycle is whether to consolidate the Mingus Union High and Cottonwood-Oak Creek school districts.
We have heard debate and discussion for years and most voters remember the lawsuit just to get this item on the ballot. Since then, we have heard conflicting arguments from both pro- and anti-consolidation groups about the benefits and costs.
Area voters have received a 55-page packet explaining all the nitty-gritty details of a possible consolidation and likely read our very lengthy story in last week’s edition.
That said, the decision is clear: Vote “yes” on consolidation.
The three current districts serving Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Jerome and Cornville are remnants of an ancient time from decades ago with three very separate communities that required very separate school districts. Clarkdale and Cottonwood were separated by a gulf of land, Jerome was a far-off destination, and Cornville was a mystery known only in song and story.
It made sense then. It does not now.
Maintaining divisions based on this fiction no longer hold any value. Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Cornville and the Verde Villages have grown closer physically and culturally to the point where many residents aren’t quite clear where one area begins and another ends.
The districts themselves basically work as one anyway — albeit in a bureaucratic mess — so voters should combine them and save taxpayer money in the doing.
The Clarkdale-Jerome School District’s decision to stay out of negotiations means that if a district forms, CJSD will be excluded from it.
In hindsight, this was brilliant. CJSD taxpayers will only be on the hook for kindergarten to eighth grade students, after which the district will fund individual students enrollment fees at Mingus Union High School or elsewhere, but taxpayers won’t be taxed for students’ high school education.
Unfortunately for the anti-consolidation folks, CJSD’s decision to stay out of the vote removes it’s strongest argument of protecting the funding of CJSD as a small district.
The small district will remain and still receives state funding benefits.
Cottonwood and Mingus, which effectively overlap, will merge into one.
Anti-consolidation advocates say the benefits of merging are minimal. Yet dealing with both the superintendents of Mingus Union and Cottonwood-Oak Creek school districts with two public records requests this year, it’s clear the redundancies are absurd. They sent out identical letters regarding COVID-19, both claiming authorship. What other duplications could be handled by one person making over $100,000 instead of two?
We asked for public records from a two-month period and received 69 emails from COCSD. Over nearly the same timeframe, MUSHD said there were 6,197. The lawyer is still sending them to us weekly in batches.
While the board members are not paid, they’re calling upon teachers and administrators to obey their whims, wasting their time and our tax money.
Both pro and anti factions agree that there will be a slight decrease in taxes. For many residents who do not wish to bury themselves in the minutiae of educational policy or realignment statistics, this argument should be enough.
Unfortunately for those arguing against consolidation, they must work very hard to find a handful of arguments against merging. But the arguments for consolidation are clear and present.
We strongly urge voters vote “yes” on consolidation. But if they have any questions, they can look through the 55-page packet they were sent and they will most likely come to the same conclusion we have: The districts should consolidate and should do so this year.
Consolidation is inevitable. Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Cornville and the Verde Villages will grow closer every year as the population increases, as well as the student count.
If consolidation be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come — it behooves voters to merge the districts now, rather than waiting a year or two, or four, when the sides are more entrenched, and when the argument against consolidation relies on “tradition” rather than facts.
For our students who deserve to have kindergarten to senior education unimpeded or unencumbered by bureaucratic wranglers, administrators and board members fighting over minutiae that does not matter to a third-grader or high school junior, vote “yes” on consolidation.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
The major issue facing Verde Valley voters this election cycle is whether to consolidate the Mingus Union High and Cottonwood-Oak Creek school districts.
We have heard debate and discussion for years and most voters remember the lawsuit just to get this item on the ballot. Since then, we have heard conflicting arguments from both pro- and anti-consolidation groups about the benefits and costs.
Area voters have received a 55-page packet explaining all the nitty-gritty details of a possible consolidation and likely read our very lengthy story in last week’s edition.
That said, the decision is clear: Vote “yes” on consolidation.
The three current districts serving Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Jerome and Cornville are remnants of an ancient time from decades ago with three very separate communities that required very separate school districts. Clarkdale and Cottonwood were separated by a gulf of land, Jerome was a far-off destination, and Cornville was a mystery known only in song and story.
It made sense then. It does not now.
Maintaining divisions based on this fiction no longer hold any value. Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Cornville and the Verde Villages have grown closer physically and culturally to the point where many residents aren’t quite clear where one area begins and another ends.
The districts themselves basically work as one anyway — albeit in a bureaucratic mess — so voters should combine them and save taxpayer money in the doing.
The Clarkdale-Jerome School District’s decision to stay out of negotiations means that if a district forms, CJSD will be excluded from it.
In hindsight, this was brilliant. CJSD taxpayers will only be on the hook for kindergarten to eighth grade students, after which the district will fund individual students enrollment fees at Mingus Union High School or elsewhere, but taxpayers won’t be taxed for students’ high school education.
Unfortunately for the anti-consolidation folks, CJSD’s decision to stay out of the vote removes it’s strongest argument of protecting the funding of CJSD as a small district.
The small district will remain and still receives state funding benefits.
Cottonwood and Mingus, which effectively overlap, will merge into one.
Anti-consolidation advocates say the benefits of merging are minimal. Yet dealing with both the superintendents of Mingus Union and Cottonwood-Oak Creek school districts with two public records requests this year, it’s clear the redundancies are absurd. They sent out identical letters regarding COVID-19, both claiming authorship. What other duplications could be handled by one person making over $100,000 instead of two?
We asked for public records from a two-month period and received 69 emails from COCSD. Over nearly the same timeframe, MUSHD said there were 6,197. The lawyer is still sending them to us weekly in batches.
While the board members are not paid, they’re calling upon teachers and administrators to obey their whims, wasting their time and our tax money.
Both pro and anti factions agree that there will be a slight decrease in taxes. For many residents who do not wish to bury themselves in the minutiae of educational policy or realignment statistics, this argument should be enough.
Unfortunately for those arguing against consolidation, they must work very hard to find a handful of arguments against merging. But the arguments for consolidation are clear and present.
We strongly urge voters vote “yes” on consolidation. But if they have any questions, they can look through the 55-page packet they were sent and they will most likely come to the same conclusion we have: The districts should consolidate and should do so this year.
Consolidation is inevitable. Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Cornville and the Verde Villages will grow closer every year as the population increases, as well as the student count.
If consolidation be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come — it behooves voters to merge the districts now, rather than waiting a year or two, or four, when the sides are more entrenched, and when the argument against consolidation relies on “tradition” rather than facts.
For our students who deserve to have kindergarten to senior education unimpeded or unencumbered by bureaucratic wranglers, administrators and board members fighting over minutiae that does not matter to a third-grader or high school junior, vote “yes” on consolidation.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
