Don’t freak out.

Consolidation is a scary word, so when Douglas Poole called me this morning I was so grateful that he could put it in perspective for me. Consolidation doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds. We can save money without stabbing at the heart of small towns.

Let me explain who this guy is: Douglas Poole oversees the budgets for all 29 school districts in NCW. He works at the North Central Educational Service District, which doubles as the middle man between OSPI and area schools, and the NCESD is the regional coordinator-of-help-and-training for everyone.

So this is how Doug put it: “Consolidation” could mean two things:

Scenario A) The state shuts down a small school district, closes the building(s), buses the kids somewhere else. The town slowly dies. The cost savings is only administrative. Why? Because those kids still need a teacher. They still need books and equipment. I’d argue they need a classroom, at least for the younger grades.

Gregoire implies this scenario when she was quoted by the AP saying:

“Young people, she said, are adept at using new technology, “but we’re still a book and a teacher. There’s a new and a better way to do things.”

Instead of several small schools with distinct staff, equipment and budgets, the public-school system should use “technology and transportation” to combine educational efforts and save money. Community and technical colleges already have shown that online learning can be effective, Gregoire said.

Scenario B) The state mandates what NCW school districts are already doing: Consolidate administration and services. There’s lots of examples:

• Until this year, Mansfield and Pateros shared a superintendent.

• Cashmere shares a business manager with the ESD (Doug Poole)

• Manson and Lake Chelan share a bus garage.

• The Palisades superintendent works part-time at Quincy Junior High.

• Icicle River Middle School Principal Kenny Renner-Singer in the Cascade School District is also principal for Beaver Valley, a remote elementary school in Plain.

• Eastmont and Wenatchee are sharing campaign costs for an M&O levy on the same election.

This year, superintendents from all 29 districts are meeting at least once a month to talk about how to save more money by sharing services. They know that more these kind of “consolidations” are possible. For example, Pateros, Bridgeport and Brewster are located within a 6-mile radius of each other. Is there anyway they can share some things without losing their individual identities? A bus garage? Special education? Maybe they do already, but it goes to show that the word “consolidation” doesn’t have to invoke fear – I think the budget is scary enough for education without that word, thank you.

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