By Anna Pier
Flowery School parents, students, grandparents and graduates gathered at Sonoma Plaza Friday, May 23 to protest the Sonoma Valley Unified School Trustees’ vote to close, in June 2026, the bilingual elementary school located in the heart of the Springs. Protest organizer Nancy Íñiguez said they came to the Plaza so more people could see who they are and what they are standing for. Protestors held up signs with a variety of messages, some in English and others in Spanish, including “Our Future Matters,” “Our Children, Our Voice, We are Flowery,” “Don’t Move Us” and “Latino Kids Matter.”
Flowery neighbor Chelsea Livingston, parent of a transitional kindergartener and a fifth grader, told the Sun, “The majority of cars, trucks and commercial vehicles who drove by honked enthusiastically or gave a thumbs up.” The Trustees propose to close the school and move the entire Dual Immersion program, currently 368 students plus teachers and aides, to another site in town, probably Sassarini School. Livingston added, “The community understands the importance of Flowery’s location for the surrounding business and nonprofit community, as well as the success of the dual immersion program.”
Seily Alcocer came to protest with her three children, two who are Flowery alums, one currently at Sonoma State, the other a UC Berkeley grad who lives in the Springs and hopes to send his children to Flowery. Alcocer, who for twenty years has lived in Springs Village, the Burbank affordable housing project on Vailetti Drive, affirmed the importance of the Flowery site. “All of us have always walked to school. Some of my neighbors don’t drive. It’s very important to us to be able to walk to our school, to connect with it.”
Springs resident Dana Bravo, whose daughter is in first grade, commented, “It’s not the fault of the neighboring community that the District chose not to invest recent bond funds in Flowery. It is the location that does not make sense to close.” She pointed out that the “heat map” on the District website shows the densest student population lives surrounding Flowery in the Springs. She and many others hope that the three studies that the District must complete before finalizing the decision to close the site will argue against that closure. Flowery is the only school in the District without declining enrollment; it has a wait list.
Protestors believe that the transportation study should include traffic at the relocated site, and the cost and feasibility of years of bussing students out of the Springs. The transition study should address the consequences of uprooting Flowery’s 368 students plus teachers and transferring them to another school, where a large part of that school’s student body will be uprooted. The third requirement before a decision to close Flowery is finalized, is a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review that the District needs to accomplish. Details of the studies, and a deadline for accomplishing them, have not been released by the District, despite multiple requests from the Sun.
The Friday evening event followed a second successful noontime protest on Wednesday, May 21 on the corner of Highway 12 and Depot Road, which leads down to the school. Flowery parents continued their protest near the school midday on Wednesday, May 28. The group has also delivered petitions to the State Superintendent of Education Tony Thurmond, and the State Attorney General, Rob Bonta.
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