After a six-day break from school caused by a raging firestorm and its smoky aftermath, thousands of students and teachers across north and west Sonoma County returned to their classrooms this week.
“There is something healthy about returning to normalcy, it is an important part of the grieving process,” said Healdsburg school district superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel after noting that almost 95 percent of students returned to classes on Tuesday, but so many teachers and staff were affected that they opened a child day care center for employees at the Healdsburg Community Center.
At Park Side Elementary School in the Sebastopol Union School District, principal Linda Irving said Tuesday: “I am glad we reopened because kids needed a safe place to talk about what happened. The best thing to do is get back to normal. We had parents hugging and crying in the hallways while their kids were ready to get back into their classrooms.”
Although damage to school was largely evident elsewhere in the county, the overall picture of the firestorm’s widespread effect on families became clearer as students, teachers and staff members returned to school and recounted their experiences.
At the Sebastopol Independent Charter School, third grade teacher Antje Bogarsky lost her home in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood, escaped with her two dogs and decided to tell an assembly of students and staff all about her experience.
“We had an assembly where we emphasized the courage and the generosity that we all observed in this tragedy,” said school principal Chris Topham. “She shared her experience with us all and then when the dogs came out, everybody just crumbled apart.”
At a meeting of school superintendents from across the county last Friday, Sonoma County Office of Education officials assured schools that, largely because of the disaster declaration by Gov. Jerry Brown, districts would not lose state funding from the Average Daily Attendance formula, nor would schools have to make up the lost days on their academic calendars.
While schools in the most fire-affected areas of Santa Rosa, Rincon Valley, Mark West and Geyserville would remain closed all week, others opened in stages this week. Most school districts in the west county reopened on Tuesday, while Windsor, Cloverdale and Alexander Valley reopened Wednesday.
As students and teachers trickled back to school, the extent of displacement by the firestorm became apparent.
At the Twin Hills Union School District that administrates four schools, Superintendent Barbara Bickford said three teachers and staffers lost their homes and 14 families of students lost theirs. In addition, five students from outside the district came to schools in the district because theirs weren’t open. Attendance was about 97 percent at the middle school campus and 82 percent at Apple Blossom Elementary.
“At Apple Blossom we had teachers create a circle for students to give them time to talk, to share and connect with each other,” Bickford said. “We were trying to make things as normal as possible.”
Because of the poor air quality caused by smoke from the fires, schools restricted outdoor recreation activities and some parents were reluctant to send their children to school.
“We had quite a few who said they were not coming here due to asthma difficulties,” said Sebastopol Charter’s Topham, estimating that his school’s attendance Tuesday was 80 percent.
With students and staff back at school, many are turning their attention to hosting fundraisers for those affected by the fires.
Topham said Sebastopol Independent Charter held a clothing drive last Sunday, in cooperation with the Summerfield Waldorf in west Santa Rosa, which found that 11 families at that school had lost homes. The school is also conducting a drive to collect backpacks for students who lost theirs in the fires.
A couple thousand high school students at the West Sonoma County Union High School District campuses at Analy, El Molino and Laguna went back to school on Tuesday, Oct. 17. There, officials said, three members of the teaching and classified staff lost their homes during the fire.
“Over the next few days, we will be collecting information about our students and their housing challenges, “ said Superintendent Steven Kellner. “We don’t have a definite number to give you at this point.”
Kellner said Analy would be sharing its athletic facilities with the Cardinal Newman High School athletic teams so that the private Catholic school can compete in its fall season.
