High school board: Good lunches, pretty good test scores, positive budget news but ...
New slate of officers; a review of Analy's test scores; CTE; inter district transfers; and interim budget approved but cuts will be needed
Last week, at the last meeting this year of the West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) board, the trustees changed seats and titles after a process of electing officers for next year. The officers for 2026 are:
Jeanne Fernandes, Board President
Lewis Buchner, Vice President
Linda Helton, Clerk
An Analy graduate in 1975, Ms. Fernandes has had two separate runs as a trustee for a total of 22 years of service, which is quite a record of attending often-long, sometime contentious, board meetings in the evening. She has served eight years on this current term. She doesn’t plan to run again so next year will be her last. In a text, Ms. Fernandes reflected on her many years on the school board: “It’s been quite a run. Some good, some bad, some just right!” The same could be said about the board’s agenda for the evening.
Good Food
Among the good things at Analy apparently is the food. Principal Chuck Wade said that a student came up to him and asked enthusiastically: “Did you have lunch?” and then explained: “Lunch was the bomb.” Wade said he’d never seen students appreciate the school lunch as the way they do at Analy. Credit goes to the Jesica Lyons, coordinator, and everyone in the Food Services Department, which serves breakfast and lunch at both the Analy and El Molino campuses. You can view the menus here or just enjoy this photo:
Good news about CSU “guaranteed admissions”
At the previous board meeting in November, a representative from the California State University attended via Zoom to discuss a MOU between CSU and Analy that would make it easier for students to apply to any of the 23 schools in the CSU system. The board approved the MOU. At this meeting, Principal Chuck Wade referenced the agreement and talked about how the program notifies juniors who have at least a 2.5 GPA and are close to meeting their requirements that they can get a “guaranteed admission” to CSU schools. This “we want you” message is a good one to hear from State universities, who are worried about their enrollment.
Not good news about inter-district transfers
Superintendent Chris Meredith expressed concern that the Santa Rosa City Schools are now limiting inter-district transfers in an effort to keep incoming 9th grade students in their home district’s high schools. Meredith learned that that some parents who are requesting to transfer to Analy have begun receiving denials from SRCS.
The administration is informing parents that they can appeal the decision, and it may take parents organizing on behalf of their children to get the Santa Rosa City Schools to change this policy. Currently, Analy has about 100 students who have transferred from the Santa Rosa district. In addition, many of the students who live in Santa Rosa and would transfer to Analy have been enrolled in West County middle schools and these students want to follow their friends who are going to Analy. This decision by SRCS, which does not affect students already enrolled at Analy, could seriously impact Analy enrollment in the future.
Pretty good scores
Analy Vice Principal Kirsten Sanft gave a presentation on the school’s standard test scores (CAASPP), which were based on 11th graders taking the tests last spring. Over two-thirds of juniors last year met or exceeded the English Languages Arts requirement and one-third did not. In Math, 41% met or exceeded the requirement while 59% did not.
Next is a chart that shows ELA and Math scores from 2015 to now. (In the year of Covid, 2020, there was no testing; in 2022, El Molino students were consolidated into Analy) ELA scores were highest in 2017 and declined steadily until 2022 before rising in 2023. This year’s score is up from last year by 7% points. Math scores also improved this year, but they’ve been going up and down since 2018.
The chart below shows how the student groups Students with Disabilities (SWD) and with Low Socioeconomic Status compare to the school averages in ELA and Math.
For 2024-25 results, Analy ranks near the top for high schools in Sonoma County. See “The High and Lows of Local High Schools” in Sebastopol Times for a comparison of local high schools.
Ms. Sanft spoke about ways that the school is actively trying to work with students to improve scores. For instance, students who met their math requirement in the first two years and do not take a course in their third year might take a workshop to refresh their math skills.
Just right: Career and Technical Education
Heidi Mickelson gave a report on the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program at Analy, which has been steadily growing over the past four years; 444 students were enrolled in CTE programs in 2024-25. Here is a slide from her presentation that provides an overview of the CTE Pathways at Analy.
Ms. Mickelson also mentioned that 129 students were enrolled in Work Experience programs this year, up from 38 the previous year. February 2026 will be a big month for the program with National CTE Week, Future Ready Week and National FFA week.
A “Positive Certification” for budget but …
Andrew Soliz, the District’s chief business official, presented the First Interim Budget Report at the board meeting. The good news is that he declared a “positive certification.” This means that the District projects that it can meet its financial obligations for the current year and the following two years.
You may have read that two Santa Rosa school districts declared “a negative certification,” which is a signal that they expect to be unable to meet their expenses in the years ahead. Unless the district can make drastic cuts to their budgets, the State may come in to take them over.
The bad news is, according to Soliz, that “revenues are not in line with our expenditures.” The district is running a deficit of $3.1M, and while the projected deficits in the out years are smaller, they will continue to deplete the available reserves. The necessity for budget cuts in 2026 is obvious, although the board did not discuss it.
This first Interim Budget is one of several interim budgets. The Governor will present the State budget for education in January, and eventually the final State budget will be approved in May. The State determines both cost of living increases (COLA) and what it pays per student—and that is based not on actual enrollment but average daily attendance (ADA). The budget report says that the trend in attendance is 92.5%. It’s all wrapped up in the State’s complicated Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
Soliz mentioned inter district transfers. Thirty-three percent of the Analy student body is made up of students from outside the district. The interim budget reduced the enrollment projection for future years by 100 students to reflect the SRCS decision to limit inter-district transfers.
Here’s a link to the full budget presentation.
2.5 gpa is a pretty low bar for college admission, especially in these days of extreme grade inflation and AI assistance. The standardized test results suggest that at least half of Analy students are not prepared for a real college education. Nice that they get good lunches. That's something.