California Watch discussed consolidating smaller districts’ administrations in order to save costs for students. As a larger district, SMCCCD stands outside of these proceedings speculating what will change around the state.

The piece published originally in the California Watch reviewed the current state of the California Community College system. Erica Perez, author of the article, examined the excess in having districts that contain one college within 20 miles of another district that contains only one school. The conclusion she was able to come to was that with merging the administration, the costs saved can be directly passed onto students.

“There’s been a fair amount of looking into it but the regulations and laws make it extremely difficult,” said Kathy Blackwood, executive vice chancellor of SMCCCD. “It would mean shutting down a district and then having another district coming in and that’s not likely to happen.”

Our district is not in danger of merging; Blackwood explained that none of its schools are considered small. She considered the added benefits to colleges merging to create larger districts, the efficiency it could generate and also the money it could save. Blackwood also mentioned the Los Angeles district and their large oversight of nine colleges. They’ve been having issues with organization and the running of their offices just because of the sheer number of students they oversee.

“Just bringing everybody together isn’t always the best solution,” Blackwood said.

With students across the state being waitlisted instead of getting into classes, the idea of consolidation can really benefit many of the districts with one college. It can lessen the costs of administrating two separate institutions. But it can also create problems within the politics of the college; with a board running one district now running multiple colleges in an area, a lot of representation can become lost.

This article has been edited to fix AP style errors. 4/19/2013 1:31 p.m.