Anna Pier: Do We Really Need to Close an Elementary School?

And Why Will the Superintendent Receive a Raise?

By Anna Pier 

If the Trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified Board vote on May 8 to close any elementary school, either on the Eastside –Prestwood or Sassarini –  or in the Springs – Flowery or El Verano –  somewhere in our Valley will be losing a neighborhood school. The California Department of Education Best Practices Guide to School Consolidation, amended by our own local School Consolidation Committee, states, “… having a neighborhood school in close proximity to one’s home is a part of every parent’s sense of well-being (not to mention the savings associated with transportation costs).”

Closure of Flowery, which is the school in the crosshairs of this Board, would leave the Springs/El Verano area, population 40,000 plus and home to the majority of students in our schools, with only one elementary school under District management. Sonoma Charter School, a TK-8, is a self-contained public school offering a creative, visionary curriculum. The City of Sonoma, population 10,600 with a geriatric sway, will have two elementary schools under District management.  But maybe we don’t need to close another school.

The deficit is real and the District has delayed for years in addressing it. As our newest trustee Gerardo Guzmán pointed out “That can has been kicked down the road.” But that doesn’t justify a rushed decision. Let’s do this thing right. 

Why is there a deficit? Since 2012, the student population of Sonoma Valley Unified School District ( SVUSD) has declined by 40%. The majority of the current trustees are being asked to solve something that previous trustees, and superintendents, failed to address. 

How better to address this financial crisis? The administration and the trustees have looked at, and acted upon, cutting the number of teachers and aides. They have cut invaluable positions, such as the Career and College Counselor at the high school. They have closed one elementary school, Dunbar; and plan to close a middle school, Adele Harrison, in June of this year. And they plan to decide at their May 8 meeting which remaining elementary school to close in June 2026. 

Why haven’t they looked instead at cutting District office personnel? This is a suggestion that has been made to the Board repeatedly during public comment since school closure was broached. It would seem logical that administrative staff would be decreasing, possibly even at a rate commensurate to the decrease in student population. But no. In fact, the District office has grown and expanded. Now we have two assistant Superintendents when there used to be none, and then one. And other District office staff positions have been added. Almost all the cuts have all been made instead to the people who work directly with the students.

Another savings that could possibly avoid closure of any elementary school would be eliminating the newly-created Transitional Kindergarten (TK) classrooms for younger students across the District. In a District that is looking at closing an elementary site, moving a school-wide program to another, and then bussing students all over, to take a step back, close TKs and stick with the usual Kindergarten model, might be a better option. 

The SVUSD Board of Trustees Agenda for Thursday, May 8 is astounding. It includes a decision on closing a second elementary school in the District, and layoffs of both certificated staff (i.e. credentialed teachers) and classified staff (i.e. classroom aides and others working directly with students). With apparently no sense of irony, Superintendent Chien, who together with President of the Board of Trustees Catarina Landry, crafts the Agenda, includes two resolutions before the layoff resolutions. One is a resolution recognizing May 5-9, 2025 as “National Teacher Appreciation Week”; and the other resolution recognizes May 18-24 as “Classified School Employee Week.”

And to top off this same Agenda, Superintendent Jeanette Chien, who enjoys the support of two assistant superintendents, is slated to receive a raise of nearly $25,000, bringing her salary to $265,853. Our Sonoma Valley Unified is a small district, with approximately 3100 total students, to afford such a salary for a superintendent who has two assistants. 

The Superintendent is hosting a “State of the District” event at the Little Theater at Sonoma High on May 6. She and the trustees will report to a select group invited to the event, which is, however, listed on the District’s calendar. 

We can do better than this. We should be better than this. What is needed is transparency, and a commitment to, first, the students, and then to the parents of the Valley. When neighborhood schools are closed, many parents lose that connection to their child’s school which is a huge component of student success. The Trustees need to listen to the parents. 

At Flowery, newly-appointed Trustee Gerardo Guzmán met with parents at a last-minute gathering on May 2. Over 50 people crowded into a classroom to share their dismay about the proposed closure of the school and wholesale removal of its 368 Dual Immersion students and program to Sassarini. Trustee Bell of Sassarini Area heard from a number of parents at his office hour May 5, but Trustee Lehman of the El Verano Area cancelled the scheduled May 5 office hour. 

Hopefully the Trustees will postpone a decision on the closure of any elementary school until they have heard from parents around the District, and exhaustively examined other options, and can honestly justify closure as the only course possible.