Hard to believe this is already happening, but indeed: Thursday was the first day of school for the Healdsburg Unified School District.
“The 2024-2025 school year has officially begun!” district officials wrote on Facebook. “Mr. Lancaster upheld his tradition and serenaded our HHS Students during drop-off this morning” with a bagpipe jam. (And there’s video.) They were speaking, of course, about Healdsburg High School art teacher and all-around fascinating local character Linus Lancaster, who’s involved in pretty much everything interesting going on in town these days. For instance, Linus and his students made a floating beaver hutch that’s been streaming video footage from the Russian River into local institutions like the Healdsburg Museum; more on that here.
I also talked to the high school’s brand-new principal, Tait Danhausen, on the day before the first day of school. He was super excited to get started. Principal Danhausen is a fourth- or fifth-generation Healdsburg native who has been overseeing a public charter-school system in Tennessee for the past decade and a half, and is now coming home to fill what has become something of a musical principal’s chair — with three different principals over the past five years.
Tait told me that returning to Healdsburg with his wife and two kids was “always the goal,” and assured me he’s in it for the long haul. “Turnover is hard, right?” he said. “You want someone who is going to be here long-term. That’s the plan.” (Keep your eye out for a larger print story on Healdsburg’s new high school principal in an upcoming issue of the Trib!)
Over at Healdsburg Elementary School’s Fitch Mountain Campus — where Tait’s kids are now enrolled — school leaders said on Facebook that “one definite highlight” of their “great first day” was a new play structure installed in the schoolyard over summer. “We’re pretty certain at least 60% of our students were on it at recess today!” they said Thursday.
Healdsburg police officials, meanwhile, are taking this moment to remind everyone to drive extra carefully around local schools and school buses. They add: “Be sure to slow down and give yourself extra time for your morning commute. When the stop signals are activated, it is a traffic violation to go around them. Let’s keep our school kids safe and avoid a citation in the process!”
