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Show ""EOTOHAL. REORGANIZATION MEANS CONSOLIDATION Editor's Note: This editorial, written by Supt. Cleave of South Sanpete School district, dis-trict, is reprinted from the January 30 Manti Messlnger, with permission of Editor Max Call. Basically it applies as well to Beaver County. In Beaver County the weighted weight-ed figures for small necessarily existent schools would change from the $126,000 in the story to $83,039 in Beaver County. Reorganiation of school districts means consolidation by virtue of prior legislation, according to a report by South Sanpete School District Supt. Winston T. Gleave. In his report, Gleave said, the 1974 legislature leg-islature passed House Bill 51 "School Finance Fi-nance Program. " Section 6, item 3 explains how a district qualified for necessarily existent ex-istent small rural school funds. The law states: "It is the interest of the legislature that extra weighted pupil units provided for small schools shall ultimately be given only to such school which because of their isolation must be regarded as necessarily existent. The State Board of Education is directed to prepare pre-pare and publish objective standards and guidelines for determining which small school are necessarily existent after consultation con-sultation with local school districts. It is the Intent of the legislature that schools not necessarily existent shall be discontinued." In looking at this law then the legislature legisla-ture has given authority to the State Board of Education to develop standards and guide -lines for determining small schools. The State Board standards and guide-, lines are as follows: a. Size of a school. This is also in the law. Elementary, ADA, 165; Jr. High, ADA, 350; Senior High, ADA, 375, 10-12 10-12 grades; Six Year High, ADA, 425. Average Daily Attendance. b. Time on a bus between two like schools over approved bus routes. Elementary, 45 minutes; Secondary, 75 minutes. c. Small schools with less than six grades will not be recognized as necessarily-existent small schools if it is feasible in terms of school plant to consolidate them into larger schools, and if by doing so they would not meet the criteria listed in (a) and (b) above. This law then says small schools that can be consolidated, according to time on a bus and ADA, must have their extra weighted weight-ed pupil units taken away which surely means In order to exist, a local board will be forced forc-ed to consolidate. They cannot operate in any other way. To point out another case where reorganization reor-ganization directly affects and forces consolidation con-solidation is when the people of the newly organized school district want to build new school buildings. What happens if the new county board of education want to build a secondary school in both Ephraim and Mt. Pleasant? According to the present laws this could not be approved. The big question is WHY? It would be illegal for the State Superintendent Super-intendent to approve such a building program pro-gram because secondary students can be transported from one community to another in less than 75 minutes on a bus. The Utah Code 53-11-2 also states that . any building program that exceeds $20,000 must be approved by the State Superintendent Superintend-ent or the approval of the person designated by him. The purpose of this article Is to point out the following: 1. Reorganization does mean consolidation consolida-tion of schools in both Sanpete and Summit Counties. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction can not approve the construction of two schools that have been getting small necessarily existent state funds if they are less than 75 minutes apart for secondary schools and 45 minutes for elementary, on approved bus routes. 2. House Bill 51 provides authority for the State Superintendent and State Board of Education to set up the criteria to determine deter-mine which are necessarily small schools and this law states, "It is the intent of the legislature that schools not necessarily existent ex-istent shall be discontinued." If a school is discontinued, it must be consolidated with some other school or the students are not provided educational services. Let's call a spade a spade. 3. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, or his designated person, must sign approval of all building construction for schools that exceed $20,000 per year. Without With-out this signature a school district cannot build a new school building. If it is against the law for the State Superintendent to sign building plans that permit construction of two buildings less than 75 minutes apart, and if you already have two buildings less than 75 minutes apart, what happens to two of these buildings? This article has shown the relationship of reorganization and consolidation with the already existing laws and with the new re -organization law, schools will be forced to consolidate because of the following reasons: 1. Loss of necessarily existent state funds. 2. HB 51 power to determine small school for funding and intent to discontinue small schools. 3. Utah Code 53-11-2 State Superintendent Superin-tendent approval of any school building construction con-struction that exceeds $20,000 per year. 4. Small necessarily existent funds in small school districts represent a good percentage per-centage of a small school's instructional budget and when these funds are taken away on the basis of school size and time on a bus, communities must consolidate to even carry on a meager educational program. 5. If reorganization takes place and forces consolidation, then this will cost many more dollars in new school buildings and district office space. It will also cost many more dollars in new buses, bus drivers, driv-ers, gasoline, maintenance,' etc. 6. There are other financial losses to the students and citizens of Sanpete and Summit Counties. A careful study of the application of HB 51 will show a chain reaction re-action Is set off that diminishes the student and citizen educational opportunities. The minute this reorganization bill goes Into effect, the following kinds of losses in funds take place which will displace teachers and increase pupil-teacher ratios. These disadvantages dis-advantages to school age students: A. Each district now gets 45 WUP's 25,000 b. Each district now gets 9 WPU's for vocational program 5,040 c. Each district receives $1,000 for media 1,000 Total $31,040 d. In addition to a, b, and c above, the South Sanpete School District could lose $126,000 per year in small necessarily existent school funds. The poorest student stu-dent of school finance can see that this large reduction of funds will create real disadvantages to the students, teacher, and citizens in Summit and Sanpete Counties. These funds are taken from the M&O budget which as you know are critical to a school district's operation. |