Two local school boards will hold a joint meeting next week to discuss the future of Don Pedro High School.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 8, at 6:30 pm in the Don Pedro High School Multipurpose Room.

The school boards involved are the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District, based in Groveland, which is in Tuolumne County, and the Mariposa County Unified School District.

Thursday’s meeting has been scheduled “so the two boards can discuss various options related to providing educational services” to students in the Don Pedro area, according to Mariposa Schools Superintendent Randy Panietz.

He added that his staff has “done some research on some possible options” which will be presented to the two boards at Thursday’s meeting.

The Big Oak Flat-Groveland district oversees Don Pedro High, the only high school in the Don Pedro subdivision. Their school board recently voted to stop allowing students from the Mariposa County side of the subdivision, which cut the school’s population in half and forced those students to travel long distances to attend high school in Sonora, Oakdale, Mariposa or other areas.

The Mariposa County Unified School District oversees Lake Don Pedro Elementary School, which serves students from kindergarten through eighth grades. At various times, Tuolumne County children also have been turned away from attending there.

Possible options that recently have been discussed include forming a K-12 school district for the Don Pedro area or creating a charter school based at Don Pedro High.

For meeting agendas and other information regarding the board meetings, see the school web sites at www.bofg.k12.ca.us or www.mariposa.k12.ca.us.