What the School District needs is a vision
Our October 3 cover caption, “Sonoma Valley Ununified School District,” was a sadly accurate commentary on the current state of affairs in our Valley’s educational leadership. The recent chaotic Town Hall meetings, held by Superintendent Rodriguez-Chien to address school “consolidation,” revealed anger and frustration that goes beyond the unhappiness that school closures always cause. It is likely that on November 15, the Board of Trustees will decide which site or sites to close at the end of this school year. We very much hope that this decision will be accompanied by a vision from the Superintendent. What we are asking for is distinct from the all-encompassing Visioning 2036 being created by the ongoing work of a District committee which includes many stakeholders. We are asking the Superintendent to provide a vision specific to the closure/consolidation decision that will help the parents, teachers and students of the Valley accept it, support it, and look to the future positively.
This is a tall order, because we are living a moment in time, not just here but all over the country and perhaps the world, when the common good, thinking about what is best for everyone, not just oneself, is not a priority. So it is all the more essential that Dr. Chien put forth a community vision of how our students will be educated, the benefits for all that will result from the consolidation, which now is looming as a loss if not a disaster.
How did our District get here? Why are people so deeply dissatisfied with this process which was made inevitable by steeply declining student population? The Board of Trustees has made some missteps. One was approving expenditure of bond money for major improvements at all four elementary sites, even though the closure of one of those sites seemed inevitable. This is even more irresponsible because they, and previous boards, did not spend money to correct the serious seismic issues at Altimira Middle School. Another misstep was delaying the decision on closure, spending down the District’s reserves while waiting to act.
The socio-economic reality that the majority of the District’s students – 65% are Latinx – are the children of the workforce of the Valley, and they live in the Springs, has long been hard to accept. In 2000, when the District was considering building a school on land next to the high school, a father from the District English Learners parent committee challenged then Superintendent Marilyn Kelly to sell that land and buy some in the Springs, where most students lived. But Adele Harrison was built.
Superintendent Jeanette Chien, even though a latecomer to this complicated situation, could have made a difference with data and details. She could have provided a fleshed-out description of the many resources, in art, music, sports, extra-curricular, etc, which students combined on a single middle school campus would enjoy. Many of the parents’ concerns would have been avoided by distribution of clear data, such as the cost savings of a site closure ($1.7 M); and site enrollment figures, with how many bussed. In particular, the Schools Consolidation Committee has repeatedly requested data and details that they needed ahead of meeting time, in order to make a recommendation. Not appointing a representative from Sassarini to that committee has exacerbated the division in the District; and allowing a 4-6 PM meeting time, which rules out lots of possible community participation, is another mistake.
All this has happened. And a decision will be made in November. We will need to go forward, as a community. We call upon Dr. Chien to guide us with a vision, so the new configuration will be more than a loss, but will give the people of Sonoma Valley Unified an opportunity to come together.
