Healdsburg heads back to school

Healdsburg area public schools kicked off the new school year
Wednesday morning in what educational leaders say will be a time of
lean budgets and higher expectations for student achievement.
Districts throughout California are tasked with doing more with
less in 2010-2011 as expectations continue to rise in standardized
testing while budgets continue to shrink as the state’s fiscal
crisis continues. For the Healdsburg Unified School District, $2.3
million in cuts from last year’s budget means classrooms filled
with more students and fewer instructional days for educators to
teach them.
“In general, class sizes will be larger throughout the school
district in order to help us balance the budget,” said district
superintendent Jeff Harding. “We have a shortened school year and
we’re going to rely more heavily on volunteerism and
donations.”
The five less instructional days may be popular with
students—two are scheduled prior to the Thanksgiving break, giving
youngsters a full week off in November—but each cut day means less
money for district employees including teachers. Fewer days also
means less time to teach students, a problem faced by a majority of
districts in Sonoma County.
Budget challenges aside, Harding reiterated the district’s focus
on improving student achievement for students of every age and
background. “We’ve seen major growth in student performance over
the past several years, and we’re going to focus on continuing that
pattern,” he said.
While test scores have haunted the district in recent years,
scores are trending upward. The state won’t release its annual API
scores until later this month, but did release raw data from the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test on Monday. The
district saw improvements in six of 10 grade levels in English
Language Arts, and in eight of nine grade levels in math.
The district will work to improve upon those scores in 2010-2011
with two new additions to its leadership team. Gone is Healdsburg
High School Principal John Curry and Healdsburg Elementary School
Principal Peter Fong.
Former Cali Calmécac Language Academy Principal Chris Vanden
Heuvel is now at the helm at Healdsburg High School, and so far
he’s done nothing but impress his new superintendent. “He
understands high schools and he understands the community,” said
Harding. “He’s spent his first six months getting to know people.
I’m very impressed with his ability to build bonds with community
members, students and parents. I think we’re going to see improved
involvement with our Hispanic community and an expectation for
rigorous instruction in every classroom.”
Longtime teacher Stephanie Feith takes over as principal at
Healdsburg Elementary School for her first stint as a school
administrator, a match Harding is already calling “wonderful.”
“Stephanie has jumped right in,” he said. “She has strong
relations with parents and other teachers that will be invaluable
in keeping the improvement effort going.
“These two principals bring so much experience they’re able to
jump right in,” he said.
With the new school year comes a brand new academy at the high
school and a continuation of one of the district’s biggest success
stories at the two elementary school campuses.
The Construction and Sustainability Academy—already known widely
by its acronym, CASA—launched this week with its first class at
Healdsburg High School. The program is designed to give high school
students an opportunity to explore and learn about construction and
sustainability and is supported by a group of community volunteers
led by organizer Ray Holley.
While CASA is getting its start, the Healdsburg Elementary
School’s enrichment program continues right where it left off last
spring with special classes for students and planning time for
their teachers. “The enrichment program was very successful last
year in its pilot program and we’re going to be expanding that this
year,” said Harding. “The enrichment teachers we brought in were
highly skilled and enthusiastic to be teaching, and our regular
classroom teachers got to meet together to hone their skills.”
The enrichment program was paid for by a $100,000 grant from the
Healdsburg Education Foundation. HEF annually selects a handful of
programs to support through fundraising. The HEF board has not yet
announced what programs will be funded this year, but will
apparently be paying for the enrichment program again in
2010-2011.