North Sacramento welcomes a new era of education

A profound change takes hold today and tomorrow in public schools in northern Sacramento County.

Four school districts that have been around for decades will cease to exist after tonight.

In the morning, a large and unified school system will take their place. Called Twin Rivers Unified, the new district enfolds some of the oldest schools, poorest children and highest hopes in the region.

"We've made the quantum leap," said Twin Rivers Superintendent Frank Porter. "We are building a new district from the ground up."

The shift touches many neighborhoods: Rio Linda. Del Paso Heights. North Sacramento. Foothill Farms. North Highlands. Gardenland. Parts of East Natomas.

For the most part, Twin Rivers' 26,000 students and their families shouldn't notice a difference. Most teachers will keep their classrooms. Bells will ring, and lunch lines will form like always.

But behind the scenes, a massive transition is taking place. Budgets, payrolls and student records are merging. Books and supplies are being inventoried. Employees are receiving new e-mail addresses. One hundred thirty-three buses are getting new names.

"We're consolidating everything," said Patty Smart, Twin Rivers' associate superintendent for human resources and employee relations.

The merger has been tricky at times: What to do with four superintendents? Which location makes the most sense for a headquarters? How to streamline 560 different job classifications?

The consolidation was approved by voters in November. It marked a major moment in local history. For years, three elementary districts – Rio Linda, North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights – taught children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Their middle and high school students went to Grant schools.

It was often an unhappy relationship, marked by dissatisfaction and divisiveness. Over a 60-year period, various factions previously tried seven times – all unsuccessful – to persuade voters to reorganize the districts.

Along with the merger in November, voters also elected seven new trustees for Twin Rivers.

Changes have already begun.

This summer, for the first time, every teacher of summer school received six hours of training in advance. Teachers were shown new strategies for helping their students, many of whom are behind.

"We decided our kids needed something different," said Brent Givens, principal of the summer program at Norwood Junior High School. "We need to treat them with extra care."

In the past, Porter said, if students did poorly, the upper grades would blame the lower grades and vice versa. With the merger, he said, that pattern will end: "Those old excuses are gone."

Here is a look at how the merger is playing out.

The budget

The new Twin Rivers system has been shielded from the budget slashing going on in so many other districts.

Twin Rivers is starting with a $260 million budget and a sizeable reserve of $28 million.

Thanks to consolidation, the district will receive a per-student allocation from the state that is $800 higher than average for unified K-12 districts. For the 2008-09 year, Twin Rivers will receive $6,950 per student.

"We fared really well," said Tracy Shackleton, Twin Rivers' assistant superintendent of fiscal services.

Twin Rivers is inheriting an estimated $46 million in debt from the Grant district for a new campus serving grades seven through 12 going up in East Natomas. Financial advisers cautioned the debt load could eat into the general fund if Twin Rivers does not reduce capital costs or find other income sources.

Facilities

Twin Rivers will have 54 schools and one big, unfinished campus called the East Natomas Education Complex, being built by Grant for $159 million.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, Twin Rivers officials have scheduled a meeting with McCarthy Building Co. to try to cut back on the existing contract, perhaps by phasing it over time.

Although Grant officials said they believe the school will have plenty of students when it opens in 2010, Twin Rivers leaders point to the housing downturn and believe the campus is going up prematurely. They worry the project is siphoning dollars away from other building needs, said Alan Colombo, Twin Rivers' assistant superintendent of facilities services.

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• Call The Bee's Deb Kollars, (916) 321-1090.