The Sonoma Valley Unified School District is working with a small group of community members intent on turning Sonoma Valley High School into a model high school, backed by an endowment that will fund enhanced and innovative programs for the 21st century.
Three men, Tim Wallace, David Donnelley and Bill Isetta, had approached the district in the fall of 2008 with the radical new idea to create a long-term strategic plan and capital campaign that would fund the endowment, thus giving the high school the financial resources to sustain its programs over the long haul.
“The business model that has served the public schools is broken and needs to be fixed,” said Isetta at the school board meeting on Tuesday night. “In the private sector we found that we couldn’t build a first class program with tuition and fees. Likewise, in the public system, neither can we meet the needs of our students with basic aid funds. What we’re proposing works in the private sector and at the university level. It can work here. We owe it to our students and the community to build a first-class high school here in Sonoma.”
Wallace echoed these sentiments, adding, “Time is of the essence. We plan to reach far and wide into the community. The high school is a core institution in this Valley. There is only one. We want it to be a great school, to leave a legacy. I can’t imagine a more important time to get involved.”
The plan calls for new sources of revenue for the high school, long range planning and marketing, and a separate, privately funded group to coordinate and execute the business model. In the short term, 2009 goals include site visits and research on effective schools, interviews and focus groups with staff, teachers, community members, and parents, and the establishment of both a SVHS strategic planning committee and a working committee of the high school development trust.
Farther out, 2010 will see the analysis of the information gathered, the development of a Web site and the creation of a five-year strategic plan, among other things. The trust has already secured IRS 501(c)(3) status and hired its first employee, local meeting coordinator Cathy Webber, to help with these early stages.
Board members and SVUSD superintendent Dr. Pam Martens were elated by the news and expressed their appreciation in turn. Board president Dan Gustafson said, “It is like having the cavalry come over the hill. Your own kids are grown and gone and you’ve stepped up to help us. It’s a wonderful endeavor and we give our sincere thanks for your efforts so far.”
In other board news, the upcoming budget meetings were discussed, with September 29 as the date for the first such meeting. Assistant superintendent Justin Frese discussed how the district is currently making use of its savings account to keep programs in place that otherwise might have been cut. He also said that the district-wide network upgrade is in progress and includes an upgrade to the phone systems, as well. “When we asked teachers what they wanted in the way of technology, they said, ‘A phone system that works!’ We’ll be giving it to them very shortly,” said Frese.
