New wave of school mergers may be coming

DES MOINES – Mounting budget and educational programming pressures may force some school districts to consider sharing or merging with other districts in the near future, officials said Wednesday.

Also, legislative leaders said they likely will not set a fiscal 2012 “allowable growth” figure for K-12 school districts next session as required by law due to the economic uncertainty caused by a worldwide recession.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, told a business luncheon that school leaders have indicated that administrators in at least two dozen of Iowa's 361 school districts are looking at expanded sharing agreements for superintendents, teachers, high schools and other resources  or outright mergers in the face of mounting financial and curriculum pressures.

“I think you will see a minimum of a couple dozen school districts,” McCarthy told Des Moines Partnership members. “I think you could see a tremendous number of school districts voluntarily merge on their own.”

Mary Gannon of the Iowa Association of School Boards confirmed that a number of districts are discussing sharing high schools or other arrangements that are a precursor to future consolidation. She expected a new wave of school mergers could begin in the 2011-12 school year.

School administrators already struggling to absorb a reduction in state foundation aid as part of Gov. Chet Culver's 10 percent across-the-board cut face the added pinch after this year with the phase out of the state's budget guarantee – a mechanism used to ensure that school districts with declining enrollment wouldn't see less state money than the year before by way of property tax levies.

With lawmakers not likely to “backfill” the 10 percent cut and unable to fully fund a fiscal 2011 commitment of 2 percent allowable growth with state money, some districts are running out of option to stay afloat financially and meet programming and curriculum requirements in coming years.

House GOP Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha said there has been a trend toward more sharing in recent years and that likely will accelerate given the current realities.

“Even if it wasn't a fiscal crisis in a host of other areas, the disappearance of the budget guarantee leads to that reality for a number of school districts,” added Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

“These stresses on the budget probably lead more people to consider that rather than fewer,” he added. “I do anticipate there were be fewer school districts in the next couple years.”

McCarthy said school administrators have asked the Legislature to delay the forward-funding requirement to set the fiscal 2012 allowable growth level in the upcoming session, fearing lawmakers would set it at zero.

Paulsen said minority Republicans likely would go allow with a 12-month deferral because they have supported revamping the law that requires the governor and lawmakers to set the K-12 base budgeting increase nearly 18 months in advance.