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April 10, 2006
The U Word
My work takes me into some very interesting issues. One of those which is about as touchy as you can get is the topic of, well, I know it isn't used in polite company and doesn't exactly have four letters, but it's unification.
For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it happens in education when two or more school districts discuss combining to make one district. Now you may think this is a simple thing. Well, shoot, you just do it. Let me tell you, it's not so easy.
The last time I had the responsibility of walking four districts through a unification process I learned how exciting it could be. Two of the districts, Orland Elementary and Orland High School wanted to be unified. The other two districts, Lake and Plaza, wanted no part of it. At one point I heard one of the board members from one of the two smaller elementary districts say, "My grandfather was on this school board. My father was on this board. I'm on this board and my son will be on the board. There is no way in h--- I'm going to vote for a unification with anyone."
Hmmm. Okay. I think you could say feelings run high over these issues.
Tonight I have the opportunity to present the process of unification to the Hamilton Elementary School Board. A petition has been circulated and signed which starts the process. My job now is to explain how the process works so the board members and the community know what comes next.
It will take at least a year for this whole thing to even get on a ballot if there are no stoppages along the way. In the meantime there will be a couple of public hearings and lots of discussion within the community of Hamilton City.
I'm not a predictor of these things. I've discovered over the years that I need to do my job of helping district work through the process then let the communities work these things out for themselves. If anyone asks my opionion, which sometimes occurs, I will only provide it if I have done the research on what might be best for the children and the families of the community. What's best depends on a whole lot of factors, and is not something others might see as best.
In the meantime, tonight, we'll take about how the process works and I'll try not to use the U word very often.
Posted by Dr Joni at April 10, 2006 06:29 PM