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Following years of declining enrollment, a trend impacting public schools statewide, McKinleyville Union School District may soon consolidate from three school sites to two, Superintendent Julie Giannini-Previde announced on the district’s website earlier this week.

The consolidation, if it goes forward, would see Morris School transition over a two year-period from its current use as a 3rd-through-5th-grade campus into a site for district offices, preschool and independent study. The district’s other two district schools would expand their class capacities, with Dow’s Prairie enrolling kids in TK through 3rd grades (it’s currently TK-2nd) and McKinleyville Middle School taking 4th through 8th graders (it’s currently 6th-8th). 

Reached by phone this afternoon, Ms. Julie, as she’s known within the district, said no decisions on the matter have been finalized.

“We need to hear what the concerns are, to hear what people think will work for themselves and their kids,” Giannini-Previde said. “We especially want to hear from parents with younger kids because they will be impacted for the longest period of time, but we also want to hear how older [students] will be impacted, too.”

In the explanatory message posted online Monday, Giannini-Previde addresses some of the factors contributing to declining enrollment — including falling birth rates, more inter-district transfers and the increased popularity, post-COVID pandemic, of the unschooling and homeschooling movements — as well as the resulting drop in state and federal funding.

“In order to balance our budget, we have reduced staffing across the district, which leads to larger class sizes and less support staff,” the superintendent writes. “Additionally, like many industries, we are working hard to keep up with wage increases and the impact of inflation on our employees’ bottom line.”

While district administrators are working to address these issues, Giannini-Previde notes that the three school sites are only operating at about 50 percent of their student capacity. Enrollment across the three schools has declined by more than 40 percent over the past two decades, dropping from 1,559 students in 1994-95 to just 846 this year. With 252 students enrolled at Morris this year, enrollment there is less than half what it was in ‘94-‘95.

The district’s proposed two-year rollout  for consolidation “would ensure that students do not have to switch back and forth, allow us time to ensure we can absorb staffing changes through retirements and regular attrition, and give the 4-8th [grade] staff a year to plan for the addition of 4-5th graders in a self-contained setting,” Giannini-Previde says in her online message.

On the phone this afternoon, she said many districts are in the midst of similar preliminary planning for the upcoming year, in part because California requires them to notify staff who will be laid off no later than March 15. 

“We need to make sure have the staff we need but we’re not overstaffed,” she said. Asked if she has a more specific timeline in mind, she replied, “Some decisions I hope can be made sooner rather than later. Other parts may need to be pushed out until after we get more thoughts, more people at the table to make those decisions.”

This afternoon she posted an update on the district’s website with answers to some of the questions that been coming in since the Monday announcement. The update reiterates that this is a draft plan, not a “done deal,” and it frames the plan as an opportunity to make some changes, such as redesigning McKinleyville Middle School, which “has been the source of negative talk about our schools,” Giannini-Previde writes.

In order to facilitate more feedback, the district has launched an online family/caregiver survey, which can be accessed by clicking here, and there’s a series of upcoming meetings where Giannini-Previde will be available. Again, check the district’s website for more info.