Maybe it was the long Labor Day weekend. Maybe it was the air conditioning kicking in during the heat wave, cooling things off. How else to explain the difference between two West Sonoma County Union High School board meetings? The August board meeting was heated and confrontational, while the September meeting was warm and conciliatory. Maybe this open, public process, which sometimes creates a mess, actually works.
Stipends restored and other highlights
Zachary Shuford, President of Analy Bandwagon, expressed his “heartfelt gratitude” to the District for restoring stipends to Drama, Band, Intramurals and Fine Arts programs, the second most contentious issue in the previous board meeting. He was grateful that Superintendent Chris Meredith personally told band program leader Casey Jones that he would get his stipend for the fall. Shuford, who at the previous meeting questioned whether the district was spending all of its Prop 28 funding, said he was satisfied with the presentation by Andrew Soliz on how much money is received and how it is spent. Both Shuford and Soliz agreed that the funding formula for Prop 28 is “endlessly complicated.” In the spirit of the evening, Shuford thanked the board and the administration for all that they do.
The administration recommended that the board approve a resolution to rescind last spring’s reduction of stipends for athletic coaches who were not district employees, putting them on a lower pay scale than employees who were coaches.
A mom of two Analy grads, Carolyn Hobbs, came to tell the board that both her sons had recently graduated from UCLA, one summa cum laude and the other, with an engineering degree, who had gone to work at SpaceX. She said: “I say this not to brag about my kids, but to thank Analy for being such a big part of their success.” Her sons were in choir and jazz band, and she was “thrilled to see the stipends restored.” She said that the music program, which attracts students to the school, is “all because of Casey Jones.”
Here are some of the highlights from the meeting:
“The best decision the board ever made was to install air conditioning in the main school building,” said Brian Miller, a math teacher and chief negotiator for the teachers’ union, who had been teaching a 7th grade class on an upper floor earlier in the day.
Miller’s comment followed Chief Business Officer Andrew Soliz’s presentation of the actual financials for the 2025-2026 school. Miller agreed that the District had a “pretty good financial picture,” with it only losing $660K last year, a much smaller deficit than had been projected.
Local treasure Mary Fricker warmly thanked Facilities Director Jennie Bruneman for the “El Molino Memories” display case in front of the gym on the El Molino Campus and the “El Molino Memories” area on the school website. She thanked Bruneman for doing this work because “it meant a lot to our community.” She gave Bruneman a stuffed lion in appreciation. Mary herself has done so much work to make sure that the records and honors that are part of El Molino High School’s history are preserved.
Nine proud members of Analy FFA were present for recognition of them and other members for the awards they won at the Sonoma County Fair in August, showing sheep, rabbits, chickens, steers, hogs, horses and goats. Trustee Linda Helton remarked on the impressive number of awards: “Did you leave any awards for anyone else?”
The most contentious topic from the previous meeting was the proposed early exit of the District from the West Sonoma County Consortium. Superintendent Chris Meredith addressed the issue by saying that the District “would put students first” and would not exit the Consortium until there was “a viable plan in place” for its future. Absent a plan, the District would stay through the existing contract’s end in 2028. He did say that he was working closely with Consortium director Sarah Zils on exploring options for its future. He mentioned that Sonoma County of Education (SCOE) was potentially interested in leading the Consortium.
Replacing a trustee
The most important business of the evening was the board deciding how to replace a trustee with two years remaining on their term. Trustee Rio Kuteira resigned last month because he is moving outside the district.
The two options were a special election or an appointment. The board agreed that a special election would take more time and money and chose to appoint a replacement from among interested applicants. The applicant must reside in Area 4 (the purple area in the map), which includes Graton and Forestville.
The Board agreed on a two-week deadline for applications; the deadline to apply is 4 pm on September 25, 2026. All eligible candidates will be considered in a special board meeting on September 30 during which a new trustee will be voted in and sworn in.
More information about the process is available on the school website here.
Start of a new school year
The overall picture for the start of the school year is looking positive. The drop in enrollment that was projected this year did not happen, and in fact, enrollment is slightly up. Some of the cuts and positions that were eliminated in the Spring are being reconsidered. Lily Smedshammer, President of the SCTA, made the case that the loss of a position in the technology department is being felt, as well as a loss of a position in the front office. She also said that the position of school librarian is critical and should be restored.
Analy’s big three
Analy Principal Chuck Wade said that the new school brought three important changes this year. One was the formation of freshman teams in which several teachers work with a block of students across multiple subject areas. Wade said that the early feedback was encouraging, and he thought that first-year students now “had multiple levels of support.”
The second thing was the opening of the new CTE facility, which was exciting for students and teachers alike. There is a public grand opening ceremony for the new buildings on Tuesday, September 29, from 6 to 9 pm.
The third was the change to a phone-free campus. He said that getting students to use the Commons App had challenges, but he remarked that it is now rare to see a phone on campus now.
Later on, reviewing data on the school’s disciplinary actions during last school year, Wade noted that there was an uptick in suspensions. He said most were in the category for alcohol and drug use, but that it was mostly instances of vaping, which is prevalent among teens. He said the uptick was the result of “better campus coverage,” having a campus supervisor last year that led to better enforcement. He also mentioned that the school is cracking down on hate speech, not only taking action but also “focusing on the education component.” He said that “not all students understand the impact of the language they use.”
Laguna High School and Academy of Innovative Arts
Greg Alexander is principal for Laguna High School and the Academy of Innovative Arts, which are both on the El Molino campus. He’s been tasked with filling a few vacant teaching positions at Laguna, filling in himself for social studies and finding substitutes for the others. He was excited to find a new teacher recently. He’s also working on getting an internship program going, talking with the CTE Foundation about their Path to Purpose program.
The Academy of Innovative Arts has a new, enthusiastic first-year class and access to a newly painted wood and metal shop. A group of seven first-year students went with teacher Cole Smith to Bullfrog Pond Campground above Armstrong Woods in Guerneville to install five food lockers (aka “bear boxes”) that were built last year in the makerspace. The campground has been closed since a fire in 2019 but a ranger said that the campground is expected to re-open once water facilities are repaired. The work was funded by a grant from the North Coast Builders Exchange.
(For transparency’s sake, the author of this article is a volunteer and donor to the Academy of Innovative Arts.)
Alexander echoed Chuck Wade’s remarks on disciplinary actions on the campus, saying that vaping is also a “tricky” problem.
Improved Financial Picture
Perhaps the best news, as mentioned earlier, is that the school’s finances for 2025-26 were better than expected, due to some additional revenue and shifting in some expenses. Chief Business Officer, Andrew Soliz, presented the actuals from the 2025-26 school year budget.
Last year’s deficit was estimated to be $3.1M, but in this final budget, the deficit is down to $900K — still not a balanced budget, but a big improvement.
Its $36.8M in revenue was higher by $668,603 than estimated.
Its $37.8M in expenditures came in less by $1.57M.
The District’s general fund ending balance is at $11.4M, $2.2M better than estimated.
Here is a PDF of Soliz’s presentation. A complete set of financials is available off the board agenda.
Ahh — sometimes climate change can be good.