LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week, the Lake County Office of Education will host two community meetings on the plans to unify Upper Lake's two school districts.
The Lake County Board of Education, sitting jointly in its capacity as the Lake County Committee on School District Organization, will host the meetings on Wednesday, June 24.
A meeting will be held at 5 p.m. at Lucerne Elementary School, 3351 Country Club Drive, and at 7 p.m. at Upper Lake High School, 675 Clover Valley Road.
“We would encourage the public to come and express their thoughts regarding unification of the Upper Lake school districts,” Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg told Lake County News.
At both meetings, the unification process will be explained, with a summary of findings based on state-mandated criteria to be presented.
One hour of public input is being allotted at each of the meetings, based on the agendas.
Earlier this month, in separate meetings, the boards of the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and the Upper Lake Union High School District voted unanimously to move forward with unifying, as Lake County News has reported.
Those votes followed months of joint board meetings to consider state-mandated criteria covering subjects like financial stability, building costs and services for students.
The unification would take effect in the 2016-17 school year, officials said.
The Lake County Office of Education is now carrying out its part of the process, including hosting the joint meetings, with the Lake County Board of Education to discuss the matter at a meeting on Aug. 19 before submitting the proposed unification to the State Board of Education on Aug. 26.
Other tasks for Falkenberg will include beginning the recruitment in September for a new school board for the unified district.
That board would be appointed in November and work with the existing two school boards until next July, with the unification goes into effect.
Falkenberg anticipates the State Board of Education considering the unification at its November meeting.
John Jensen contributed to this report.
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