Nice Surprise at School Board Meeting

Graduation rates up, student activists a no-show, a demographic update and the future of lockers

In a forum where surprises are seldom welcome, everyone at the WSCUHSD board meeting was happy to hear that Superintendent Chris Meredith had become a new father. He explained that his daughter, Aubrey, arrived earlier than expected, born on January 14. The new baby and her mother are doing well, and Meredith has been out on parental leave but he was there for Wednesday’s first board meeting of 2024.

Speaking at the top of the meeting, Meredith addressed an issue that has caused concern among the faculty — the future replacement for the Director of Human Resource, Mia Del Prete, who is retiring at the end of the school year. The concern is that the new HR Director could be filled by a certificated administrator, and then the budget might not allow the hiring of another school administrator. Later during public comment, a teacher in special education spoke about her program’s need for an additional school administrator. Meredith said that he determined that the hiring of a new HR Director would not affect Analy’s ability to hire another school administrator.

Dashboard

While not necessarily a surprise but nice to see were Analy’s largely positive results on the California School Dashboard, which Meredith mentioned.

• Analy’s best result was its 97.8% graduation rate, which reflects an increase of 2.5%, and a rating of blue.

• English Language Arts rating was also in the blue. It increased 69.4 points and was 53.6 points above the standard.

• Mathematics got a green rating. It was up 55 points but was 28.9 points below the standard.

• College/Career readiness received a medium rating which determined that 48.6 % of students were prepared for their future. It could be interpreted that a majority of students are not prepared for their next steps in life.

Remembering Tom Glover

Mia Del Prete shared a slideshow presentation “to honor and remember Tom Glover for his years of dedicated service to the District.”

Tom Glover (Source: Mia Del Prete’s presentation)

From her notes:

Tom began his career with the District in 1964 as a Woodshop and Photography Teacher at El Molino High School.  Glover was also the Head Varsity Baseball Coach.  He remained at El Molino through 1973 but transferred to Analy High School to serve as a Dean of Students from 1973 to 1974, and was then promoted to Vice Principal.  He served as one of the Vice Principals for two years.

In 1978, Glover transferred to Laguna High School to serve as the Principal until 1982.  He then transferred to El Molino to be the Principal until 1990.  Glover returned to Laguna High School to be the principal until he retired in June 1998.

After retirement, Glover served as the District Expulsion Chair from 1999-2002 but had to resign after he was elected to serve as a Trustee on the School Board.  Glover served on the School Board for four (4) years.  Over the years, as an employee of the District and after retirement, Glover continued to be a dedicated and active member of the El Molino Booster Club.

Glover touched the lives of many students over the years.  Many employees of the District have worked with him and even had him as one of their administrators at Analy or El Molino High Schools. Glover will be missed by many.  Our deepest sympathy to his wife Sandy, his son and grandchildren, along with all who loved Mr. Glover.

The Letter

The student activists club was listed on the meeting agenda but Board President Julie Aiello said that the club decided not to show up and instead sent a letter to the Board explaining why. Trustee Debbie Ramirez wanted to read the letter aloud but Aiello repeatedly told her not that it was not appropriate. Aiello said that she would explain why the activists club did not show up. Ramirez seemed determined to read the letter but finally relented.

Trustee Lewis Buchner and Aiello both explained that the activists club wanted approval to fly the Pride flag on campus. They were apparently told that they could present the proposal but that the Board would not approve or disapprove the flag at the meeting. Buchner said that the Board needed to have a policy about giving permission to fly flags on campus, remarking somewhat flippantly that while they might all agree on flying the Pride flag, it might lead to other requests to fly “the Confederate flag or the vegan flag.” No board members indicated that there was a problem with flying the Pride flag.

Aiello said the student activists felt disrespected and that’s why they were not showing up. As a board member, she wanted to “make thoughtful, well-informed decisions” and she was happy to listen to them but had told them that they would have to wait for a decision. This upset the students activists.

Demographics Update

Rob Murray of King Consulting gave an update on a demographic study that he had presented last February (covered here). Murray said that 2023-2024 enrollment was “a bit above projections” (a small surprise) but the last ten years have shown a slow-and-steady decline in enrollment. Murray said that peak enrollment in this District was 20 years ago.

The updated projections through the year 2030 show “a less drastic decrease” but enrollment is anticipated to drop below 1400 students by then.

Why the decline? There are fewer students in the pipeline that feeds the District. If a 12th grade class of 423 students graduates in 2024 and a projected 403 incoming ninth graders replace them, that’s a loss of 20 students. A larger issue is the declining birth rate. “Local births decreased around 25% between 2002 and 2020,” Murray wrote in his presentation. “Three of the last four years are among the lowest birth totals on record.” Birth rates are down 30% across California and the West from 2007 to 2023; nationwide the birth rates are down an average of 23% (link). (Congratulations again to Superintendent Meredith and his wife for starting a family.)

A total of 433 students or 28.5% of students in the District come from outside the District. 347 students come from Santa Rosa.

That 28.5% outside the District is larger than the percentage of students that reside in Sebastopol and much greater than those students from other towns in the District.

Facilities and the Future of Lockers

Jennie Bruneman, Director of Facilities, gave a progress report on installing HVAC systems this summer and installing new locks. Julie Aiello asked if painting the lockers in the main building is on the to-do list. Bruneman said a surprising thing - that lockers are not really used as much by students anymore; she estimates that maybe a hundred out of a thousand lockers are actually used. Instead of re-painting the lockers, they might consider removing them.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Budget update

On January 10, Governor Newsom released a draft budget for the 2024-2025 year. Andrew Soliz, Chief Business Officer for the District, said that “the Governor's budget proposal acknowledges a $37.9 billion shortfall, roughly $30 billion less than projected by the Legislative Analyst Office back in December.” Soliz said “the Governor's proposed budget is good news for education: no mid-year cuts, no deferrals, no program rollbacks. The bad news is that declining enrollment will impact the Local Control Funding Formula, and a meager cost-of-living adjustment (currently proposed at 0.76%).” Additional details on next year’s budget are expected to come in the next few weeks.

---

The next WSCUHSD board meeting is February 21 at the Analy Library followed by March 6 at the Forestville Library.