By David Bolling As the cascading drama of the Jeffrey Epstein files played out across headlines and breathless broadcasts, a sold-out audience of the Sonoma Speaker Series got a first-hand look inside the story of the first Epstein victim to go public. Veteran journalist and... Continue
Main Story
Management and Employees Alike Praise the Agreement By Anna Pier In the spring of 2025, with no bugles or fanfare, the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn became unionized. The contract between management and Unite Here Local 2 was signed March 19, 2025, concluding a two-year campaign... Continue
Trustees Hear Charter School Proposal and Address the Superintendent Search By Anna Pier A full five-member Board of Trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District met in regular session on November 13, after an almost two hour Closed Session with no reportable action. The... Continue
Scouting for Food was an outstanding community effort by local SCOUTS By Sandy Piotter, FISH Scouting for Food, an annual drive, was an extraordinarily successful community effort this year by SCOUTING AMERICA (formerly known as BSA, Boy Scouts of America). Thanks to the hard work... Continue
At its meeting of November 19, the Sonoma City Council will discuss and potentially take action to approve codification of the state's new Building Code Standards. The California Building Standards Commission adopts a new edition of the California Building Standards Code (Title 24, California Code... Continue
The State of California has released its Education Dashboard for 2025, a standard method of ranking school districts and student performance. Th Sonoma Valley Unified School District's Dashboard reveals some progress and some decline in academic performance. Specifically: Science at a performance level below standard... Continue
he West Spain Street Rehabilitation Project is now underway. The project, managed by the City of Sonoma and constructed by Team Ghilotti, Inc., includes pavement grinding, repair of localized pavement failures, new striping and signage, and utility structure adjustments. Work is taking place along West Spain Street between 1st... Continue
By Anna Pier In the wake of Sonoma Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees’ final decision on October 9 to close Prestwood Elementary School in June 2026, the District has been working on the transition plan for school consolidation, also approved by Trustees at... Continue
How the Wildland Urban Interface Code (WUI) Is Changing Housing By Larry Barnett The State of California is justifiably worried about wildfires and the property damage they cause. After the massive destruction in Southern California, legislation was passed to regulate the type of landscaping that... Continue
By Anna Pier MacArthur Park Charter School (MPCS) Board submitted its Charter Petition and Proposition 39 facilities request to the Sonoma Valley Unified School District on October 31, 2025. The proposed public, tuition-free charter school, envisioned by a charter board composed of current Prestwood parents,... Continue