Let’s Close a Bunch of School Districts!

First, an assertion: the smaller the school district, the more expensive
it is to run. Consider this data, from the OSPI website: the five most
expensive school districts per pupil in Washington State.

District FTE Expenditures Cost Per Pupil

Benge 6.39 289,740 45,342.75
Washtucna 47.61 1,850,971 38,877.79
Queets-Clearwater 29.55 1,017,843 34,444.77
Glenwood 60.87 1,933,071 31,757.37
Keller 36.00 1,065,260 29,590.54

You have to go down to #25 (Oakesdale) before you find a district

with more than 100 kids. In the top 100 school districts by per pupil cost,
there’s only 2 (Seattle and Clover Park) with more than 1,000 kids. There
are 295 school districts in Washington. 145 of them have more than 1,000
kids.

(Fun fact #1: Benge is in Adams County!)

(Fun fact #2: A year at Oregon Episcopal School, one of the premier
schools in the Northwest, is $36,870 for boarding students. We could close
the district, send the kids to boarding school, and still save $50,000 a year.)

Consider, too, that in 1900 there were 2,710 school districts in

Washington State. Many of them disappeared as their towns did (Mondovi,
Hatton, Cunningham, Toroda). Some consolidated to become larger school
districts; Mead, for example, is an amalgamation of 6 smaller K-8 school
districts that decided they wanted their own high school. Other districts
consolidated to save themselves; Edwall with Reardan and Hartline with
Coulee are local examples. The most recent school district in the state to
disappear was Vader, in south Lewis County. Their schools was condemned,
they couldn’t pass a bond, and now they’re a part of Castle Rock.

But closing isn’t just for small districts. What if…..we consolidated
the Valley?

District Students Total Spending Per Student Savings at CVs Rate

Central Valley 11,895.54 97,679,484 8,211.44
East Valley (Spokane) 4,120.75 36,441,522 8,843.42 $2,604,241
West Valley (Spokane) 3,562.46 31,767,147 8,917.19 $2,514,229
Total Savings: $5,118,469
Strictly by the numbers, then, since East Valley and West Valley are
more expensive per pupil than Central Valley is, there would be money
saved if their per pupil spending was at CV’s rate. At 19,578 kids, they still
wouldn’t be one of the 10 largest districts in Washington State. CV teachers
can be a little odd, but I think the EV and WV people would adjust.

Understand that this is a classic theory v. reality argument; the

vicissitudes of bussing, administration, and special education expenses could
certainly lower that projected savings number, though it could also make it
higher. Other advantages to having less school districts:

*Less school board and school bond elections.

*More buying power for things like health insurance, etc. The larger the
group, the more wide spread the risk. Similarly, health insurance pooling
would be impacted.
*Less duplication of existing services. Instead of three district websites,
one. Instead of three gifted programs, one. Instead of three different people
in charge of Skyward, one.
*Makes it a lot easier on the union presidents. No, really.
*Removes the artificial boundaries that divide adjoining districts. Where I
live near Airway Heights, for example, the west side of the street which is
closer to the town of Reardan is part of the Medical Lake School District,
while the east side of the street (which is closer to Airway Heights, which is
the Cheney School District) is actually in Reardan.

Other opportunities present themselves. It may have made sense at

one time for Great Northern to be its own school district, when the roads
were mostly impassible, but the rise of Sunset Elementary and the automated
snowplow sort of makes Great Northern a relic. In the Seattle area you have
districts like Shoreline where the dividing line isn’t a bridge, a river, or a
county line, but rather what side of the Avenue you live on. Why? In
Thurston County there’s Rochester, which fails levies for fun and doesn’t
really have a town to call it’s own. Carve it up into the surrounding districts
and call it good.

Given the state of the state budget we have to look at every option,
even the nuclear ones.