It’s the $6.9 million question that area superintendents are expected to propose to their school boards within the next month:

Should we take the next step in researching the idea of unifying into one large district?

At the request of area superintendents, the Placer County Office of Education computed what kind of revenue would be generated if several school district combined into one unified district.

If Placer High, Alta Dutch, Auburn, Ackerman, Foresthill, Loomis/Ophir, Newcastle, Placer Hills and Colfax school districts reorganized and unified, it would mean $6.9 in new monies, according to Gayle Garbolino-Mojica, Placer County superintendent of schools.

The new monies would mean $6,277 per student in each school. That figure is based on a complex formula that factors in numbers such as a school’s average daily attendance and staff salaries, Garbolino-Mojica said.

The $6,277 per pupil would be an increase for each of the schools except Placer High, which would take a $107 hit per student.

Now that the superintendents have the figures in hand, they plan to take them to their respective boards and ask for their thoughts, Garbolino-Mojica said. She said the group intends to reconvene after school starts this fall.

“This is basically the school district’s decision,” Garbolino-Mojica said. “Each has to weigh the pros and cons.”

Garbolino-Mojica stressed that the figures are a very preliminary step toward the decision to unify. She said debt, reorganization costs, facilities, personnel costs and more still need to be evaluated.

The Placer Union High School District Board of Trustees has already started reviewing that information, according to Superintendent Bart O’Brien. He presented the figures to the board at a meeting last week and said the board was interested in taking the next step.

“I think it’s really important for school districts to have this conversation, especially given the uncertainty of state funding and declining enrollment in our area,” O’Brien said.

Placer Union Board President Kathleen Geary said the economy, declining enrollment and future county growth are among the reasons the board wants to further investigate the possibility of a regional school district.

“It’s not just about the money,” Geary said. “We’ve got to see what’s best for the kids in all the districts. It will be a process, but I think it’s good to study – I think we have to.”

There are several prolonged steps on the way to becoming a regional unified district.

The districts would need to agree whether or not they want to be unified. That decision would most likely come after an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons.

If the districts agree, then they would need to present a request to the County Committee on School District Organization.

A series of public hearings and preparation of public documents would follow.

Eventually, the final decision would be left to voters in affected areas. A majority of voters would have to approve it.

“It’s a very long process,” Garbolino-Mojica said. “It’s not happening overnight.”

Wednesday night Auburn Union School District Superintendent Michele Schuetz will pass around the spreadsheet of the revenue figures to trustees during her report to the board.

She said the board plans to review the figures initially at the meeting and revisit the topic at a future meeting.

“This is just a very initial process of discussion,” Schuetz said.

For one school board, however, there is strong hesitation at the idea of combining with the region’s districts.

Loomis Union School District trustee Jack Day said his board has yet to formally receive the figures. He said the idea of a regional district is one he and other board members view with caution.

“We really believe we’ve been very prudent in our financial position for a rainy day,” Day said. “We’re in very good financial shape compared to the rest of Northern California and we believe we have a strategic plan unequaled in the state.”

Day said the Loomis board is concerned that pooling their resources would jeopardize their progress.

“We don’t want to be in the position that because we’ve been prudent, we have to bail out or support some other portion of the district,” Day said.

He added that the varying demographics of each school area would make regional unification difficult.

“I’m not sure the culture and character of the Loomis Basin really meshes in with the rest of the county,” Day said.

Margie Spalding, a recent past president of Friends of Placer High School and Placer High School parent, agreed that not every school in region could be easily condensed into one district.

Several years ago, Spalding was part of a committee that tried to put an advisory measure on a ballot asking community member how they felt about reorganization. She said the committee was a proponent of community-based unified school districts as opposed to one regional unified district.

A community-based district would mean a high school and its feeder schools would be one district. For example, an Auburn unified school district would include Placer High School and the elementary schools that feed into it. The committee suggested the area be broken into districts for Loomis, Auburn, Colfax, Foresthill and Placer Hills.

“One reason we wanted community-based is because we’re structured so that people in the community actually make the decisions that can affect the success of the school,” Spalding said.

She said that one example is one community would decide to grow while another would not. That may not work as well in a regional system, she said.

Those questions and plenty of others will be asked as school boards and district staff review the initial numbers.

“We’re looking very critically at this thing,” Day said.

The Journal's Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com or post a comment at www.auburnjournal.com.