Spring has sprung, the birds are nesting and guarding their turf. The amusement offered to the observer of seeing small blackbirds attacking majestic eagles because they have crossed territorial boundaries reminds me of the Oak Harbor and Coupeville school districts’ efforts to protect their respective territories.

In spite of the fact that thousands of small school districts have unified in order to cut administrative and operational costs and ultimately offer more options to students, these two struggling districts continue gobbling up funds that could be better spent on programs, diversified curriculum choices, teacher mobility and academic materials and supplies.

Of course, the school boards don’t want to give up any of their powers, but options are available. If money isn’t there to do research on the how-tos experienced by other unified districts, common sense is available free of charge and should be used ASAP.

Add up the duplicated salaries of superintendents, assistant superintendents, counseling, special ed, transportation and department administrators. The lack of funding problems could be diminished or eliminated from both of these small districts if they unified. The savings in buying quantities of materials and supplies would be huge. Both of these districts’ enrollment figures totaled don’t come near to many of the larger, functional mainland districts. Many of which decided to unify years ago.

Give the two school boards the math WASL to see if they have the moxie to figure out the terrible waste of funds they are currently administrationg. I’ll bet they couldn’t pass. Nest eggs aren’t just for the birds, are they?

Beverly B. Casebeer

Coupeville