For several years after my retirement in 2021, I served on the Fund Committee of Woodland Community College. I also wrote stories about events, offerings and people at the college.

Although I have backed away from my involvement with the college for a number of personal and professional reasons, that doesn’t mean I don’t support its mission.

The question being raised, however, is whether it’s necessary for Woodland Community College to fall under the Yuba College District, which is based in Yuba City; or under the Sacramento-based Los Rios Community College District.

Would it make much difference? I don’t know.

But the question may be moot if newly elected state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon has his way of uniting all of Yolo County’s schools under one college district.

According to Cabaldon, in 1975, Woodland Community College was assigned by the state to the Yuba Community College District despite an 83% no vote of residents.

Winters was placed in the Solano Community College District. Clarksburg went to the San Joaquin Delta District. Meanwhile, Davis and West Sacramento went to Sacramento-based Los Rios College District.

Cabaldon has introduced Senate Bill 226, which passed the Senate Education Committee earlier this month on a 5-0 vote. It would unite all the county’s schools under one district.

“Today (four) different community colleges serve Yolo’s five school districts,” Garth Lewis, Yolo County Superintendent of Schools, was quoted as saying in a statement from Cabaldon’s Office. “That means no single community college district is fully accountable to the needs of our students or positioned to partner with us on long-term planning.”

SB 226 would create a process for the Community Colleges Board of Governors to transfer Woodland and/or Winters into Los Rios Community College District or consolidate the county into a single new district.

The legislation is now in the hands of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will look at the cost of such a move.

Here’s what piqued my interest.

During hearings on SB 226, a number of past and present Yolo County educators turned out in support, including Lewis.

Others who showed up to speak were former Woodland Mayor Marlan “Skip” Davies, who at one time served as superintendent of the Woodland Joint Unified School District and also worked for Woodland Community College in retirement; current Woodland Joint Unified Superintendent Elodia Ortega-Lampkin; Woodland Joint Unified School Board President Deborah Bautista Zavala; Yuba Community College District Trustee Dr. Jesse Ortiz, who also once served as Yolo County Superintendent of Schools; Yolo County supervisors Angel Barajas and Lucas Frerichs; former Woodland Joint Unified Trustee Karen Rosenkilde Bayne; former Woodland City Councilwoman Vicky Fernandez; and Jake Whitaker, former president and trustee of the Woodland Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees.

It’s got to irk members of the Yuba College board that, despite Ortiz’s position as a trustee, he is still speaking in favor of joining the Los Rios district.

Regardless, with this many local educators speaking in favor of a unified community college district, it’s incumbent to ask what they know and we do not?

Because of my previous vantage point, I was impressed at the money spent to build the new Performing Arts Center and the effort to form soccer teams and construct a regulation-sized field on which to play — which that is now going out to bid — as well as the money spent on programs and services.

It makes sense to unite the entire county under a single college district as long as all students benefit. Will the public feel differently in 2025 than it did in 1975? That remains to be seen.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.