SONOMA COUNTY -- The Sonoma County Office of Education today said it expects to begin a study July 1 into the consolidation of Old Adobe Union and Petaluma City school districts.
Sonoma County has 40 school districts. The county’s last consolidation study was conducted in 2006 when the Office of Education commissioned a report for west Sonoma County districts. No change in district structure resulted from that study, as it was not found that there was sufficient financial advantage to support reorganization at that time, according to the office.
The study of the Petaluma districts is in response to a written request from their governing boards and will be funded by the Office of Education. Proposals from educational consulting firms are currently being sought to conduct the analysis, which is expected to take six to eight months to complete.
The California Education Code has statutory requirements that will be included in the study, according to the Office of Education. Additionally, the two districts have requested that the study consider eight factors related to academic alignment of the districts, resource utilization, possible effect on existing programs and impact on staffing and governance.
