Over the next two weeks, Sonoma West Times & News will be rehashing 2020 in west county. We’ll be reviewing the biggest events in the local schools, as well as covering topics such as COVID-19, health care, homelessness and more.
Unbeknownst to west county schools in January, they had crept to the peak of the roller coaster that was 2020 right before the nosedive, twisting and turning throughout the year to get students and their education through in one piece.
In January, Superintendent Toni Beal said the West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) had just become the first public schools in the county to offer an Advanced Placement program called the AP Capstone Diploma program.
The district contemplated, “offering the class in the evening so as not to conflict students’ daily class load and so that students from Analy and El Molino could take the class together,” according to reporting by Sonoma West Times & News.
That month, district trustees approved the district’s agreement with the West Sonoma County Teachers Association to increase teacher and other staff wages annually by 4% for three years. The 12% total boost would hinge on passing Measure B for a parcel tax on March 3 to fulfill the final year’s lift. Jim Walton led the campaign for the measure, projected to secure $1.8 million for the district.
Then-interim Chief Business Official Anne Barron said WSCUHSD would need to cut $400,000 in the 2020-21 year and $650,000 in the 2021-22 year to pull off textbook costs, the district’s mandatory 3% reserve and the new raises.
In the meantime, the Sebastopol Union School District pinned its hopes on Measure E, for a $17.5 million general obligation bond to fund facilities upgrades to meet today’s standards in the same March 3 vote.
When the county voter information guide shipped out, the high schools skidded through the unfortunate discovery that the last two pages of the full text of Measure B never made it to the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters by the deadline in December of 2019.
The district’s lawyer’s office accidentally left out the pages and the district’s secretary turned in the packet to the Registrar of Voters unopened, unnoticed until the five-day grace period already ended.
Parents protested in February against the superintendent’s idea to move the Laguna High School program in Sebastopol onto the El Molino campus in Forestville as one way to treat a deficit grown beyond $400,000.
The relocation could allow Laguna students to access electives and resources to increase their graduation rates at El Molino where enrollment continues to decline, Beal said in February.
In March, not long before the start of mass COVID-19 shutdowns, Beal presented a Superintendent’s Budget Committee report on $2 million potential cuts. Sonoma West Times & News reported the district issued over 16 preliminary layoff notices, though Human Resources Manager Mia Del Prete said, “A lot will change between now and May 15.”
Shortly after, the agenda flew out the window mid-March, when districts in west county and the rest of the county suspended in-person instruction under recommendations from the Sonoma County Health Department.
As Sonoma West Times & News reported in March, the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) directed schools to find out which students lacked internet access at home and loan them hotspots and computers over spring break, anticipating the COVID-19 shutdowns that would follow.
West county’s high schoolers experienced less internet access compared to Cloverdale and Healdsburg students, though WSCUHSD superintendent Toni Beal said the district was working with service providers to meet the needs of its students without computers with internet available at home.
By April, Measure B passed, skimming the two-thirds majority vote needed and steering the district clear of many potential cuts, but the COVID-19 crisis disrupted budget projections that previously identified a $400,000 deficit even if the measure succeeded.
In May, WSCUHSD principals told Sonoma West Times & News that students and teachers alike missed in-person interaction and instruction. Both were managing, according to Principal Shauna Ferdinandson at Analy and Principal Matt Dunkle of El Molino, but Ferdinandson said teachers with kids and elderly parents were having a rough go and Dunkle mentioned connecting struggling students with therapists and counselors. Laguna Principal Lindsey Apkarian said students at the continuation high school were drifting as distance learning wound on without in-person supports.
The class of 2020 faced the end of their 12 years in school in May without the rite of passage of a proper graduation ceremony. Lily Smedshammer suggested yard signs to celebrate the seniors to the West Sonoma County Schools Community Action Coalition, which coordinated the funding so families could pick up signs at the high schools.
In June, west county high schoolers interviewed by Sonoma West Times & News said they largely enjoyed the looser, more personalized schedule of distance learning but maintaining structure, motivation and accountability without the presence of peers and teachers was a challenge.
The district had adopted a “hold harmless policy” to preserve grades from the last day of in-person classes in March which some students found to be a blessing and a curse because while the transition to completely virtual education wouldn’t hurt their grades, it was hard for some to stay motivated.
Classes resumed online in the fall after an intense summer of local youth protests swirled by. Education was disrupted again in August by the Meyers and Walbridge wildfires in west county, as coastal and Russian River communities evacuated.
That fall semester, SCOE and county superintendent Dr. Steve Herrington were preparing a study on the unification of west county’s 11 school districts, each with its own budget and declining enrollment to think about from the pool of just 6,000 public school students across all eleven.
Across the country, the state and Sonoma County, educators recognized a jump in failing grades among their students. In October, new Laguna principal Allie Greene said in a quarter of her students weren’t passing at least one class at some point in the semester.
The high school district alarmed its community in October when administrators presented an early feasibility study on consolidating the high schools to address its budget, battered by declining enrollment and operating at a structural deficit previously covered with one-time funds, state money or the current federal pandemic relief aid.
“Our district is at a place financially where consolidation may be one of the only things we can consider for us to remain solvent,” Superintendent Toni Beal said. Programs and teacher positions are also at stake if the district fails to make budget changes to prevent the $2 million shortfall projected by new Chief Business Official Jeff Ogston to hit in the 2021-22 year.
Some El Molino parents and other community members were convinced the district would
choose to close the Forestville school in favor of preserving the Analy campus and brought the heat board meeting after board meeting through November.
5th District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins entered the scene to advocate for El Molino and at the last minute, included west county high schools into the West County Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) proposal, created to dedicate lodging tax revenue to the Bodega Bay Fire Protection District’s mission to consolidate with the Sonoma County Fire Protection District, ironically.
School board president Jeanne Fernandes incurred the wrath of El Molino parents when she objected to the supervisor’s move without first consulting WSCUHSD, but came to support the TOT measure after the two talked.
In November, the school board voted to endorse the West County TOT after county supervisors agreed to soften the language of the measure so the district could reserve consolidation as its last resort and still receive funding to buy time for discussion.
The trustees voted in early December to send a district parcel tax measure to voters in the same March 2, 2021 election to support the schools, pivoting from their initial rejection of the proposal.
According to Fernandes, approval of either the parcel tax or the TOT measure could buy a year to plan and discuss consolidation further, and two years if they both pass.
In the meantime, WSCUHSD trustees decided to pursue a “placeholder” consolidation plan in November to move Laguna and the district office onto the El Molino campus and relocate El Molino students to Analy so the district could have a fiscal recovery plan on file to avoid massive layoffs while they await the results of the parcel tax and TOT election.
If it sounds like a lot, it was and it is — in mid-December, the school board approved the district’s budget certification as qualified, formalizing the obstacles and recovery plans ahead.
