Are small school districts endangered?
Twenty-six of Humboldt County’s 32 school districts could be required to consolidate with neighboring districts under a reorganization proposal before the state Legislature. Additionally, the state’s draft Master Plan for Education, released last month, calls for removing much of the authority of the state superintendent of public instruction — an elected post — and transferring that power to a new position appointed by the governor. The purpose of the plan is to streamline and improve the delivery of education services to students from kindergarten through college. “Our recommendation is that the governor appoint the person who runs the Department of Education and that there be a clear line of accountability,” said Janet Holmgren, president of Mills College in Oakland and chair of the Governance Working Group, one of seven groups that presented the draft Master Plan to the Legislature in early May. Holmgren said her group stopped short of suggesting the publicly elected schools chie
