By Megie Marvel
Beneath the composed smiles at the board table lies a series of decisions that have shaken the very soul of our community. The Sonoma Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) Board’s recent actions have left families stunned, ignored, devalued and watching their children’s futures treated as expendable in a game of politics and power.
Flowery Elementary School, rooted in the Springs neighborhood, has long been a vital home for our predominantly Latinx community, with nearly 78 percent of its students identifying as Latinx. Its dual immersion program was established in the late 1990s and, more than a curriculum, it was a living, breathing commitment to cultural connection, belonging and hope.
Relocating the program strips away more than a building. It breaks trust. Dual immersion succeeds only through stability and access. Families walk to Flowery. They volunteer in classrooms. They speak the language of the school: Spanish, English, and community. Moving the program undermines that rhythm. It leaves behind families without cars, disrupts learning for older students and sends a clear message, “Your roots here don’t matter.” That isn’t just a bad policy decision, it’s a moral failure.
Moreover, opportunities to expand the dual immersion program district-wide have been overlooked. In 2006, SVUSD was awarded a $500,000 Foreign Language Assistance Program grant to support final expansion. Despite such investments, proposals to extend dual immersion to other schools in Sonoma were denied. This is particularly disheartening considering that implementing a dual immersion program requires just one dedicated teacher to initiate. In contrast, many other countries mandate proficiency in at least two languages, highlighting how Sonoma is falling short in preparing students for a multilingual world.
As families brace for change and children are displaced, district leadership is being rewarded. Superintendent Jeanette Rodriguez-Chien received a retroactive raise, bringing her salary to $265,853, plus $21,625 in added retirement benefits, all while the district faces a $2.25 million deficit.
This isn’t a one-time slip. It’s part of a long pattern. Since 2015, four superintendents have come and gone, each with generous compensation packages, some with large severance checks and costly contract buyouts. Recruitment, transitions and payouts have cost the district dearly, money that could have been invested in classrooms, teachers, and programs like Flowery’s.
What message does this send? That inconsistent superintendents matter more than students? That budget gaps are a reason to close schools, but not to question top salaries? It’s not a miscommunication. It’s a misalignment of values.
We like to say every voice matters in Sonoma Valley. That every child, regardless of background, deserves the chance to learn, dream and be heard. But how can we claim to be a democracy when board seats are filled through appointments and unopposed races?
Current SVUSD Board members, including newly appointed Gerardo Guzmán, were never elected by the public. Others walked into office unopposed. Without debate, without public accountability, without a platform. These are the people making decisions that fracture communities and displace hundreds of children, and they do so without a true mandate.
Worse still, the board has taken deliberate steps to make public participation harder than ever. In recent months, they’ve changed the meeting location, making it less accessible. They’ve altered public comment rules so that people can no longer speak before each agenda item. Instead, all agenda comments must be made before the meeting begins, regardless of when the item is discussed. Comments on non-agenda items have been pushed to the very end of the meeting, making it nearly impossible for working parents, teachers or students to speak on a school night. They even shorten public comment time at their discretion. Now they’re talking about eliminating Zoom access and online public comments altogether. This effectively shuts down one of the few accessible ways working families, disabled community members and multilingual speakers can participate.
This is not how governance is supposed to work. The SVUSD Board’s actions represent a dismantling of the Madisonian model where deliberation, representation and public voice are supposed to be the bedrock of democracy. Instead, we’re watching power become more concentrated and less accountable.
The closure of Flowery is not just a bureaucratic move. It is the natural consequence of a system that excludes. And it leads us to the question no one at the board table seems willing to answer: Who decides what matters? And who gets erased in the process?
Until we have a board that is elected, not appointed, representative not removed, and accountable, not insulated, there can be no justice. And without justice, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no true education. Just policy, power and silence.
This moment demands more than frustration. It demands action. The SVUSD Board’s choices show a pattern of disinvestment in the students who need us most, while rewarding a revolving door of top administrators. This isn’t just a fiscal crisis. It’s an ethical one.
We must demand a full audit of the district’s leadership expenses from superintendent compensation to severance packages and recruitment costs. We must advocate for policies that center students, not administrators. And we must rebuild our governance structures to reflect the true voice and will of this community.
The time for quiet hope is over. This is not just about one school. It is about whether we value equity or convenience, people or power, children or compensation. When programs that uplift our most vulnerable are dismantled, when a community school is shut down and families are scattered, we all suffer, whether we have children in the district or not. This affects the future workforce, the soul of our neighborhoods, and the strength of our public institutions
When language access is denied, it weakens our social fabric. When democratic participation is stripped away, it invites corruption. And when public education becomes a private game of musical chairs, we must ask ourselves: who wins, and who is always left standing without a seat?
Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, neighbor or taxpayer your voice matters. Your silence is not neutrality, it is consent. The SVUSD board is betting we’ll stay tired, divided, and distracted. Let’s prove them wrong.
Thank you Megie. You covered all the bases, with the most important one standing out. Many of the trustees were not elected by the people in their areas. They ran unopposed or were appointed, by others that were appointed or ran unopposed. These trustees do not represent the majority of students and their families.