Two Jackson County school districts pledge to explore merging services, possibly share superintendents

The Michigan Center and Vandercook Lake school boards agreed Monday to work toward sharing services and employees — up to and possibly including the superintendent.

They also left the door open for future collaboration with other districts.

The agreement, which was unanimously approved at separate board meetings, formalizes discussions that have already been occurring. Further board approval would be needed to commit the districts to actually sharing any services.

Both districts will maintain their identities, officials said. “Cardinals are still going to be Cardinals and Jayhawks are still going to be Jayhawks,” Vandercook Lake board President Delinda Woods said of the districts’ nicknames.

School officials said sharing services can save money and provide more effective programs.

Services that will be under consideration for sharing include transportation, maintenance, business office functions and state and federal reporting, said Michigan Center board President Gerald Holda and Vandercook Lake Superintendent Tony Hollow.

Positions would be eliminated by not replacing retirees rather than by laying off employees, Hollow said.

The two districts will lay the groundwork for collaboration of services during the 2011-12 school year. Holda said he expects to see fruits of the agreement soon.

Hollow said the agreement with Michigan Center does not mean the two school districts will combine into one.

“We’re creating a plan so that doesn’t happen,” Hollow said.

State lawmakers have provided financial incentives for school districts to cooperate. The Jackson County Intermediate School District already has worked with districts to provide joint services in areas such as technology and accounting. Jonesville and Reading schools in Hillsdale County are among districts already sharing a superintendent.

The agreement strongly corresponds with the Service Consolidation Plan portion of the “best practices” incentive approved by the Michigan Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder. Districts that meet four of five best practices identified by the state get an additional $100 per student in state aid.

Michigan Center Superintendent Scott Koziol — who once worked under Hollow as an administrative assistant and curriculum director — said the agreement includes the possibility of one day sharing superintendent services because “we feel that it’s important to include every position that the districts have — we’re talking about teachers as well.”

Hollow said he plans to stick around as Vandercook Lake superintendent at least through the end of a three-year contract extension recently approved by the board.

“How fair is it of us to say, ‘Hey, we may share our custodial department, but don’t you dare think the superintendency is the ivory tower position that cannot be explored later on?’ ” Hollow said.

Koziol said the agreement is worded to encourage future partnerships with other districts within the county because the boards wanted to leave “no stone unturned in providing students with the best education possible.”

“We feel like it’s important to get the ball rolling with our two districts, but by no means is it exclusive of any of the other county school districts,” he said.

East Jackson school officials publicly acknowledged they were open to exploring sharing superintendent services, but Koziol said the timing is purely coincidental.

“This here started back in March and we felt like a July board meeting motion would set us up well in regards to the kind of the timeline Tony and I have moving forward,” Koziol said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with East Jackson, but East Jackson is a great district and if there are opportunities for collaborations or shared services with them, we’ve included that in the motion we passed.”

East Jackson officials could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Lyman Robertson, president of the Vandercook Lake Education Association that represents the district’s teachers, said he has no concerns about the shared services talks. He said he trusts that the deal won’t lead to layoffs.

“I think it’s proactive that they’re looking to keep the costs down with the current economy and the situation at the state level,” Robertson said.

Michigan Center has about 1,390 students and Vandercook Lake has about 1,300.

Citizen Patriot education reporter Bob Wheaton contributed to this report
-----
As published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot on July 19, 2011