Deerfield, Britton boards agree on consolidation

The joint school board meeting between Deerfield and Britton-Macon school districts drew a large audience to the Deerfield school library, as expected, Thursday night, and the prevailing mood was one of cooperation among trustees on both boards. The purpose of the meeting was to vote on the consolidation of the two districts, a move that has been under consideration, both formally and informally, since the state’s economy took a downward turn in the last several years.

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The boards and superintendents prefaced the formal vote, which came later and which was unanimously for consolidation, by emphasizing to the crowd that public participation and full disclosure would be the hallmarks of the process of blending the two school districts.
To emphasize the importance of community input, the meeting opened with a public comment period.
One of the questions was from a woman who said that she had specifically purchased a home in the Deerfield school district because of the schools. “What will happen to my property value if the schools consolidate,” she asked. She said that she feared that with longer bus rides for students and a bigger district, the area would be less attractive to new residents and property values would decline.
Deerfield School Board President Greg Cannon fielded the question. He reassured the woman that both school districts would be reworking transportation schedules and curricula to minimize disruption and inconvenience to students and maximize class offerings, noting that the consolidation was not an option, it is a necessity for survival.
“We have a lot of information that we need to communicate to the public before the election,” Cannon said, “but one thing I can tell you for certain right now, in two years, if we don’t merge, there will be no school here and then what will happen to property values?”
Superintendents Richard Fauble, of Deerfield schools, and Charles Pelham, of Britton schools, made the case that the consolidation was a hard choice but not to be feared. Students would ultimately benefit by additional class offerings, more electives, and extra curricular activities.
“When you sit here like these 14 people do, sometimes you have to make some difficult decisions,” Fauble said referring to the trustees on the two school boards. “There are 29 school districts in Michigan that are in deficit right now and 150 to 170 that will be next year. The old-fashioned term for that is bankrupt.” Fauble went on to explain that school districts are, by law, not allowed to submit a deficit budget and therefore must make painful cuts or close. Fauble said that Deerfield and Britton are being proactive by taking the initiative to combine resources and make the cuts where they will hurt students least.
“For the ‘11-’12 school year, the stimulus money will be gone for districts and the legislature has no plan to replace those funds,” Pelham said. “One of the bills that the legislature is thinking about would deduct 15 percent of any school district’s foundation allowance [state aid] depending on a district’s fund equity. You can see where they’re headed. They’re saying essentially that because we have been prudent enough to maintain a fund equity, they are going to tax us by saying, ‘That’s state money you’re sitting on, and we want it back.’”
“There are many bills under consideration by the state for school finances, including one that would reduce sales tax to 5.5 percent and then institute a tax on services, but they don’t know whether that will pass and we certainly don’t,” Fauble said. “The bottom line is that nobody knows what’s coming.”
When the boards presented the benefits of consolidation to those present, the trustees did not ignore the fact that there would be layoffs and changes in building usage, but countered those harsh facts by listing the benefits and advantages.
“One of the biggest advantages will be smaller class sizes,” said Britton-Macon Board President Elizabeth Roe. “For those who are worried about the combined district being bigger, with only 820 students, we will still be the smallest district in the county except for Morenci.” Under consolidation, most classes will have no more than 25 students, she said. Thirty students in a class is widely considered an agreeable target number in contract negotiations.
Building use was an issue of concern and plans are for both communities to retain elementary schools (kindergarten through fifth grade) but, starting next school year (2010-2011), the middle school would be in Deerfield and the high school would be in Britton.
The boards resolved to conduct public information forums directed by a committee consisting of representatives from the respective boards, an administrator, parents, members of the general public, and students. The committee would schedule and conduct designated open forums to answer questions from the communities. The object is to educate the residents of both communities of the advantages of merging before they decide individually in the voting booth on Aug. 3.
If the decision is for consolidation, the first official school year of a unified school district would begin in Sept. 2011 under a single superintendent, a single high school (Britton), middle school (Deerfield) and separate elementary schools in each community.
The prospect of consolidation leaves personnel assignments uncertain and leaves almost everyone uneasy, but as Deerfield board member Linda Pirolli said at the meeting, “It might be hard on us but the kids will hardly notice. Most have been together for years, anyway. If you see four students together, two from each school, you wouldn’t be able to tell who is from Britton and who is from Deerfield. They get along that well,” she said.