Santa Rosa school board mulls unifying 10 districts

In an effort to integrate schools and possibly save money, the Santa Rosa City School board voted unanimously last week to study a plan to unify its 10 elementary, middle and high school districts into a single district, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

Unifying the districts might be expensive in the short term, as district lose grants and basic aid funding, but may save money in the long term, district consultants said. The greater reason for unifying is to reduce segregation, school board members said.

“(Unification planning) leaves it open for everybody at the table to decide what’s in it for them, what’s in it for all of us,” trustee Laurie Fong said. ““We can’t have ‘our kids’ and ‘your kids.’ It has to be all our kids.”

Board trustee Omar Medina, who attended local schools and whose parents are immigrants from Mexico, said integrating the schools should be a priority.

“For as long as I’ve lived here, I’ve felt a lot of segregation in our community, and a lot of it from our school district,” he said. “In the long term, this will benefit our community on many levels.”