As 2020 winds down, the Reveille will be taking time to reflect on the past year and everything that’s happened — from fires to a pandemic, Cloverdale has persevered. Despite barriers, the town came together for socially distanced or virtual events, supporting local businesses and more.
Over the coming two weeks, we’ll be sharing with you some of the highlights of the year.
In February, the Reveille wrote about the Jubilee Cookbook Club — a group of local women who meet every month to have dinner parties based on one specific cookbook. The members take turns picking a book for everyone to cook out of.
“We were talking about how we need something to do in the wintertime,” said Shannon Moore, owner and baker behind Flour Girl, explaining how the club came to be. “Pretty much everyone in our social circle loves food — either works with food or loves to cook — and we all have a ton of cookbooks.”
In March, Jefferson Elementary Principal Susan Yakich was recognized by the school administrator association as Elementary School Principal of the Year for Region 4 by the Association of California School Administrators . Region 4 encompasses districts in Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino, Lake, Napa and Solano counties.
When asked about the award, Yakich said that she was proud of the work that Jefferson staff have done to help support the social and emotional learning of students.
Some of the people who helped define the beginning of the pandemic were the mask makers who worked tirelessly, oftentimes for no monetary return, to make fabric masks for community members. On April 1, the state of California made wearing masks optional for people who needed to venture out in public. In April, the Reveille spoke with Lynn Calza and Ipolani Bovee about their efforts to make masks for the community.
To make masks, Calza enlisted the help of her kids and a pool of young volunteers, making hundreds of masks within a short period of time and getting fabric donations from local businesses.
While Bovee began making masks for local essential workers, she said that requests for them flooded in following the April 1 health recommendation.
In late April, Alexander Valley Film Society Executive Director and co-owner of The Clover Theater and Next Door Comics Kathryn Hecht was named chair of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board. Hecht was appointed to the board by Fourth District Supervisor James Gore in August 2016. In an interview with the Reveille, Hecht said that she hoped that having a background as a north county resident will help people in northern Sonoma County feel represented in county leadership.
In May, the Reveille profiled the work of Cloverdale native Nick Pavelka, who contributed footage to a film that received two Sports Emmy nominations. Pavelka worked on the HBO documentary “Any One of Us,” which captures the reality of dealing with spinal cord injuries and calls attention to the stigma that only athletes are susceptible to life-changing spinal injuries. The film follows Pavelka’s friend, mountain biker Paul Basagoitia.
To help document time during the pandemic and also raise money for local nonprofits, Cloverdalian Yvette Wendt-Fomin began taking porch portraits of Cloverdale families, eventually taking photos of over 100 local families and raising $7,600 for the Cloverdale Food Pantry and Cloverdale Senior Multipurpose Center. Wendt-Fomin decided to take the photos and asked for donations after folks started asking around about if anyone had started taking local porch portraits.
In late May, it was announced that Jefferson Elementary School administrative assistant Lizeth Guerrero was chosen as one of five Sonoma County finalists for Classified School Employee of the Year. The award recognizes classified district employees, and typically puts the five county finalists up for a state award. However, the state-level contest was put on hold this year. The five award finalists for the county were out of 12 classified employees countywide.
On June 17, the Cloverdale Unified School District (CUSD) announced former Two Rock Union School District Superintendent-Principal Elizabeth “Betha” MacClain as its new superintendent.
The superintendent search began following the announced resignation of Superintendent Jeremy Decker, who was hired to be the superintendent of the Windsor Unified School District. Decker will start in Windsor at the beginning of July. He announced his departure from the CUSD on April 22.
“I think it’s important for our community to have somebody who has a long-term commitment and with recent history with Jeremy, we’ve had someone who’s been like that,” district trustee Preston Addison said during the board’s June meeting. Decker had been the superintendent at the CUSD since he was appointed to the role in an interim position in December 2014. “That’s a tough legacy to come off of, somebody’s who been here for that long.”
“I think we’ve found a candidate who’s committed for the long term … at every step of the way, I think that Betha distanced her lead over the other candidates. From written, to first interview to second interview to checking references. I think we’ve got somebody pretty phenomenal here to take the reins. Hopefully we’ll get the award for longest tenure that Jeremy just set,” Addison added.
In October, Alexander Valley Healthcare announced Kirsten Tellez as its new board chair. Tellez has been a board member since 2017 and currently serves as a Director of Development at Sonoma State University.
“Access to high quality, affordable healthcare for our community, in particular for those who are uninsured or underinsured, is a personal priority. No one should be denied care due to lack of funds,” she explained. “Alexander Valley Healthcare, also an FQHC, serves an essential role in our community. I look forward to working with Deborah Howell and her excellent team of medical providers, healthcare workers, administrators and staff in furthering the mission.”
Tellez took over for Paula Wrenn as chair. Wrenn recently moved to the central coast, dividing her time between Cloverdale and San Luis Obispo County. However, COVID-19 disrupted her travel and her plan to continue as chair of the health care board.
On Oct. 3, the Kiwanis Club of Cloverdale presented Ace Hardware owner Will Jopson with its Distinguished Service Award. Jopson is a longtime supporter and pillar of the Cloverdale community. Looking through newspaper archives, Jopson’s service to the community is evident: Jopson and Ace Hardware has sponsored Cloverdale sports teams, donated supplies for local city beautification projects, loaned walkie talkies to the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce during the annual car show, lended a hand during emergencies, the list goes on.
The November election brought with it some changes to local leadership, as well as renewed terms for incumbents who re-ran for their seats.
Voter turnout for the county was a whopping 90.57%, with 272,244 of the 300,586 registered voters casting votes.
The Cloverdale City Council had two seats up for election. Out of a pool of five candidates, current school board members Todd Lands and incumbent Melanie Bagby came out on top.
Lands received the most votes, with 2,222 (29.44%) cast in his favor. Bagby received 1,610 (21.33%) votes. First-time candidate Jenny Candelaria-Orr received 1,407 (18.64%) votes, incumbent Mary Ann Brigham received 1,361 (18.03%) and newcomer Nicole Garcia-Hinchliffe received 948 (12.56%).
The Cloverdale Unified School District Board of Trustees had three available trustee seats this election cycle. While early winners for the first two seats were evident since election results began to be announced, the third seat was a tight race throughout.
In the end, newcomer and Windsor teacher Gabriela Mendoza-Torres was elected to the board with the most votes at 3,497 (28.97%), incumbent Preston Addison was reelected with 2,742 (22.72%) votes and newcomer Ashley White was elected with 2,155 (17.85%) votes.
Coming in fourth was appointed trustee Brandon Axell with 1,936 (16.04%) votes and Johannes J. Hoevertsz with 1,741 (14.42%) votes. In December, Axell was appointed to fill the vacant school board seat left by Lands’ departure.
