I’m excited to write this article. Though it’s the end of the year, this story is about a new beginning for the Mark West schools. All the schools want everyone to know that Mark West Union School District is alive and well and waiting for the new group of kids to register for kindergarten.
Kindergarten registration is at the Mark West School gym/multi purpose room on Jan. 18, 2018 at 7 p.m.
The following day (Friday) is registration day. Then the students will be placed to the appropriate classrooms.
There are three kindergarten classrooms in each school. There are about 20 kids in each class, as opposed to about 28 in the intermediate grades.
Though this is the beginning of a bright future, it is also the ending to the story I want to tell.
I had a nice visit with Superintendent Ron Calloway and, let me tell you, he is a squeaky wheel.
Ron Calloway, Superintendent, Mark West Union School District regularly climbs up on the play structure and looks over the ruins. He looks beyond the melted fence and focuses on the lots that are being cleared, one by one.
He is so happy to have reported to the students, teachers and parents that Riebli School will reopen Jan. 8, 2018, along with the other Mark West schools.
Friday, Dec. 22 will be the last day of class, this year, for all the schools. For Riebli kids, currently having classes at San Miguel and Mark West, it will be their last day at the hosting schools. After the morning session all the displaced students will be bussed back to Riebli for a happy holidays celebration at their own school.
How did this happen so quickly? It wasn’t quick enough for Superintendent Calloway.
As I walked around Riebli School, on a icy, clear morning, looking out beyond the neighborhoods, I could see blackened trees intermixed with the colors of late fall, in every direction.
Riebli School actually did not burn. The fire, having burned all around it, left the smoke, soot and ashes all behind. Four portables on the property, belonging to Extended Childcare were burned.
Superintendent Calloway thought it would be simple to get them removed. Not so. The Army Corps of Engineers could not enter the property without a “Right of Entry” form.
Once that was accomplished, he was told that there was no need for it. So he tried to set up the removal and was told that, yes, they did need one. The Army Corps said they could be there in two days. Then, however, the superintendent was told he needed a different kind of Right of Entry, which, by the way, didn’t exist.
While this frustrating process was going on, as you most likely know, there was no water from Cal Am for a week after staff was allowed back in. When the water came back, Superintendent Calloway was told to flush all the toilets, in order to flush out the system. Senator Mike McGuire happened to call him to see how things were progressing. He told him he was flushing toilets!
He went on to share the frustration with getting the Army Corps in to remove the burned buildings. Senator McGuire told him he would be there in two hours. He was. And he immediately got the corps cleared to go to the property. And it was done.
With so much happening all at once, in such a disaster as we have experienced, the process can be so frustrating. It’s awesome to have such great leaders representing us.
Getting back to the process: The school itself was not burned. So why were the children shipped out to other schools?
Kindergarten through second grade went to Mark West and third grade through sixth grade to San Miguel.
All the kids were kept together with the same classmates and teachers they had prior to the fire. Portable walls were put up in the gyms to make temporary classrooms, complete with sections available for private reading instruction.
The Department of Education left the opening of the schools up to local decision, meaning Superintendent of the Mark West District.
Therefore, it was important that the Riebli area be monitored for air quality while the debris was being removed before repopulation could occur. For a long time, as we all know, you could not get into Riebli because roads were blocked during the time when barricades were still up. All three schools went through a complete remediation process. This means right down to the items in the desks.
To this day you will see the machines monitoring the air quality in the school grounds. They were placed there by the Department of Forestry, collecting samples hourly. At this point the air is good.
Finally, Oct. 28 was moving day. An organization called Salesforce, out of San Francisco, and Bayside Church out of Sacramento came in force, with volunteers. Bayside Church is a sister church to the one the music teacher, Sue Hufford, attended here; they wanted to do something. So, not only did 75 people come to help, they brought $100 Target gift cards for every child and faculty member who lost their homes. That was 225 children and 19 faculty members.
Sunday, Oct. 29 was building day. Volunteers put together partitions for classrooms in both gyms. Medtronic and a company called Endologix donated the partitions. People came from everywhere and rooms were partitioned off in five to six hours.
Monday, Oct. 30, schools were back in session at Mark West and San Miguel. Retired superintends of schools in Santa Rosa served coffee and donuts to parents that came on the first day.
There were counselors for the kids at both schools. They used the same plan as when Sue Hufford passed and the children needed to talk.
Day 1, not many kids seeking help. Day 2 was Halloween. On Wednesday, lots of children came.
Therapy dogs and a mini horse were brought into the rooms. Susan Gonyo, a teacher, Rachel Valenzuela, Director of Student Services and Lionel Cooper, counselor, arranged it. I’m told that these folks were invaluable through the process.
A part of the building that did burn was the school district office. It is being rebuilt with plans to be a community education center for parents and community, as well as a professional development center for teachers. There will be digital learning, and classes such as math night and ways to deal with stress after the fire. They hope to be open in February or March.
What’s happening at the other schools?
The Charter School at Mark West is using two rooms normally used by the Extended Child Care (ECC) in the afternoon and the Riebli kindergarten uses them in the mornings.
The Redwood Consortium classes that were being held in Mark West were moved to Rincon Valley schools, thus freeing up space.
The intermediate grades from Riebli are in the gyms with partitions for walls. Fortunately, the weather has been dry and the children are able to play outside vs. in the gyms.
Some of the young teens from the charter school help support the younger grades with reading. All the grades get music.
Each kindergarten and first grade class has a paid para educator helping the children with wherever necessary.
The teacher in the garden, from Occidental Gardens, has been given extra time to teach there.
The counseling is supported by a two-year internship with graduates from college.
All this is working very well and children are experiencing, first hand, the art of cooperation. And the Mark West School District is not only alive and well, thanks to everybody, it is thriving.
Aggie Maggio is a local Realtor and member of the Mark West Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at [email protected] or 486-1303.
