Consolidation will create student-first education culture for Upper Verde

John K. Ligon

John K. Ligon

I am writing in support of the school consolidation/unification of the Cottonwood Oak Creek School District and the Mingus Union School District and respectively request your “yes” vote on the Nov. 3, 2020 election. My support of combining and creating a new unified district is based upon a number of factors.

My wife Vicki’s family is from Cottonwood, and we have visited the Cottonwood area extensively since 1980. We retired to Cornville in 2016. As such, I have become aware of the dual school systems and their varied conflicts and concerns through the years.

Vicki’s and my careers have literally spanned the globe and have included teaching and administrative positions in public, private and American schools internationally over the course of a 38-year career. The school systems have been unified, in that all grade levels within each system were early childhood/kindergarten through the exit grade, usually the 12th grade. The school systems have run the gamut of very small such as Alpine School District to one of the largest in the nation, Clark County School District, the fifth largest district in the United States.

The benefits of having all grade levels and schools under one umbrella were numerous to students, parents, community and all school/district staff.

Communication and coordination of student services between schools, particularly from 5th to 6th and 8th to 9th, significantly benefited students especially with special education, gifted and other needy students. As a principal, I was able to facilitate this with my colleagues and teachers with greater ease due to the unified system.

Staffing, especially in the smaller systems, enabled the schools to share specialized staff due to student enrollment. This proved another way to maximize resources for students and community.

The other ways in which having a unified school district benefited the schools and community included the following: streamlining school administration and support service system costs; providing the opportunity to align curriculum, academic services, sports, music and other curricular and co-curricular activities through a K-12 unified district; planning staff development for district initiatives; and the all-important scheduling and calendaring that made family planning activities much easier. These are but a few of the benefits from having a unified school district.

One of the greatest benefits from creating a new unified school district is the creation of a new school and community culture of viewing all students as “our students.” We have the opportunity to improve our community and school system at this juncture in time. As such, I respectively ask that you join me in voting “yes” to create a new unified school district on November 3rd.

Cornville’s John K. Ligon’s work in education spanned the globe and included teaching and administrative positions in public, private and American schools internationally over the course of a 38-year career.


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