Lucerne Elementary School teachers have written this letter to express concerns regarding unifying Lake County school districts. We believe that before any changes should be considered, all focus should be upon improving the education of the students in our county.

Our questions are as follows:

l) How will these changes affect our small school?

Student programs: As a small, cohesive district, we are able to quickly tailor our efforts to our own students’ needs. In a large district, decisions would be made by an administration that doesn’t necessarily know our students’ unique needs. We also risk further loss to the personalized learning environment when teachers and students get moved around within a much larger district.

Test scores: We have worked very hard to have the resources and collaboration needed to address student test score improvement issues. We have stayed out of “Program Improvement” by knowing our students and using our resources to meet their needs. If we unify, how will our test scores be impacted by movement of students and loss of revenue?

2) How will students be affected by changes in accessibility of administration?

Presently we have daily access to our administration and all questions, concerns and issues are taken care of immediately. Our accessible administration knows all of our students by name and each student’s strengths and needs. Administration attends student and teacher meetings, visit our classes frequently, and are involved in our intervention programs – on site. With unification, would we lose the strength gained by our administrator knowing our student population so well? Administration also knows each teacher’s strengths and needs and is able to offer resources accordingly.

Lucerne and Upper Lake already have a principal/superintendent position in which they “wear many hats.” If we were to unify, a superintendent position would need to be created, adding another cost. In the students’ best interests, we would still need to have on-site administrators.

3) How will allocation of resources be decided?

Teachers from larger county districts have complained to us that we have more professional development opportunities and more access to current technology. We appreciate having current technology available as well as the opportunities we have for professional growth. We know that having appropriate resources and teacher training is crucial to providing students with the best possible education.

4) What about financial responsibilities?

Our district has made appropriate sacrifices to make our district financially responsible. We do not want to merge with other districts and put our school at financial risk.

Although Lucerne teachers would probably be given a pay raise if unification happens, we wonder how this will financially impact a new unified district.

 

Our board has already given up their monthly stipends and district-paid health benefits, as it impacts our district’s general fund.

We already participate in contract sharing and cooperative purchases with the county and other districts. For instance, our buses are serviced through Upper Lake, and we share some support personnel with them.

It is our hope that this list serves to clarify both our feelings and concerns regarding what is at risk surrounding unification. We appreciate working with the students in Lake county and will always be willing to collaborate with other schools for the needs of students. Our students are unique and we work hard to provide the best programs possible for their education.

Tammy Saldana, Melissa Seymour, Kathy Hughes, Christa Mott, Catherine Davenport, Laura Ewing, Stella Winckler, Megan Grant, Merilee Krieg, Venus Kuintzle, Ron Hale, Jen Wangberg and Doreen Walstad are teachers at Lucerne Elementary School.