By sound design of the state's Legislature, this simply cannot happen.
In reference to state Rep. Timothy Mahoney's initiative to consolidate the administrative functions of Fayette County's school districts: I am concerned that a central piece of this plan is a single, countywide referendum.
As a taxpayer in the county's smallest district, I hope this was only proposed out of a simple misunderstanding of state laws, as was Mahoney's initial recommendation that the school board members of the consolidated district be paid.
Each of the six school districts in the county is distinct and independent of the others. As such, voters in the Connellsville Area School District, for example, cannot vote for the directors of the Frazier district nor in referendums of the Frazier district. If this were not the case, a large troubled district, by the force of sheer numbers, would be able to vote to take over a smaller, healthier district against the wishes of the smaller district's residents.
By sound design of the state's Legislature, this simply cannot happen.
If any school district in Fayette County wishes to consolidate its administrative functions with other districts, that decision is to be made by the district's school board or, in the case of a referendum, the district's — and only that district's — voters.
As autonomous political subdivisions, school districts are not subject to control by the wishes of residents in other districts.
Should the taxpayers in any school district decide it is not in their best interests to enter into a consolidation, it does not matter if every other voter and every other school board in the county believes otherwise. The decision to consolidate is each individual district's to make.
Ignoring for now the legality of even placing a nonbinding advisory question like this on the county ballot, if there must be a referendum of the plan proposed by Mahoney, it should not be a single, countywide referendum. Such a referendum would be nothing more than an expensive, nonscientific, public opinion poll. If the results are intended to provide meaningful information, let alone carry any force of law, there must instead be six separate referendums, one in each of the six districts.
James Hartz
Perryopolis
