Optimism all around at start of new high school year
New construction, digital passes, school "houses" and the 50th reunion for Analy class of 1975
“I’m optimistic,” said Superintendent Chris Meredith, speaking about the new school year in the West Sonoma County Union High School District at last Wednesday’s board meeting. Meredith noted that this is the start of his fourth year as head of the district. He was happy that the district is fully staffed.
There were many reasons for optimism. One is stability. The same leadership team from last year is in place at the district as well as Analy and Laguna. Another is growth. The district added a new school, the Academy of Innovative Arts on the El Molino Campus. Analy, under principal Chuck Wade, is making positive changes to improve student’s sense of belonging, as well as offering more options for students to prepare for life after high school. Yet another reason is the new construction and campus improvements, which took place over the summer. In addition to the new Career Technical Education (CTE) building under construction at Analy, there are also new painting, paving and other upgrades to existing buildings on the Analy and El Molino campuses. Lastly, there’s better food, which both staff and students appreciated.
Analy teacher and West Sonoma County Teachers Association President Lily Smedshammer said that “the school year was off to a good start.” She noted the “rapid progress on building construction.” She also said that research has shown that student achievement increases along with new construction on campus as students feel more positive about their school.
Campus Construction and Upgrades
Director of Facilities Jennie Bruneman received many accolades for her work and the work of her team on campus over the summer. “We only have 44 days to make these changes,” she said. “They did remarkable work.”
Not all the staff were present at the board meeting. (A complete list of the department members follows at the end of the article.) In addition, Jose Hernandez Soto will retire next week after nine years with the district.
Bruneman also thanked the contractors (Wright Contracting, GCCI and Carr Construction) who worked with the district on the construction and renovation projects.
The new CTE building is $27 million of the $40 million in new construction. Here are photographs of the new CTE building construction from August 7.
Here’s a list of the improvements made during the summer:
El Molino Campus
HVAC/Roofing at Building C
Improvements of snack bar at gym
Analy HS
Small/Main Gym HVAC/Roofing including the removal of skylights at the main gym
Small/Main Gym floor resurfacing and new logo
Small Gym Exterior Siding/Painting
Student Services Center - exterior painting, repaired gutters
Student Services Center - completion of the Portables Project Phase 2 (added gender neutral restrooms and improvements to two staff restrooms at the office)
CTE Building - continued preparing of the building pads, completion of the concrete bus/fire lane
District office
Exterior painting
Roof/HVAC replacement
Grounds clean up (removal of bushes/trees) and removal of old shed
Interior floor repair at maintenance office - carpeting to take place over winter break
Bruneman said that a few weeks out from the start of the school she gets worried that the work won’t be completed in time, but amazingly, it mostly gets finished just in time. She thanked teachers for their patience as a few remaining items were completed.
Bringing Joy Back to School
Librarian Julie McClellan said that the Analy library is looking good, and students are taking notice. About half the library was renovated, with the other half slated to be done next summer. (She said it was too much to box up all the books before summer.) McClellan said that she wanted to “bring joy back to school.”
Principal Chuck Wade elaborated on the same idea. He said that for him “the ultimate goal is joy.” While it might sound trite to some, he said, he was “dead serious” about students experiencing joy at school. “Every student should be safe here, belong here and thrive here.”
Digital Campus Pass and Houses
Jonah Caron, the new student board representative from Analy, commented that students had to scan a QR code to use the bathroom. “Since we don’t have use of our phones, this is a problem,” he said, noting that it was difficult to use Chromebooks (laptops) for this purpose. He wondered how many passes were available at one time.
In his remarks, principal Chuck Wade acknowledged there was still work to do in rolling out the school’s new digital pass system for students. In a follow-up email, Wade explained that Analy is using new software called 5 Star and described the creation of “houses” to bring students together in small groups.
“In addition to passes (not just bathroom, but wellness center, counseling appointments, permits to leave, etc.), we will also use 5 Star to help manage our tutorial period. Students can sign up to visit specific teachers, and teachers can request specific students. We are imagining more varied and flexible use of our tutorial period, as I mentioned last night.
“We'll be using it next week, for example, to launch our houses. Students will learn which house they are assigned to and convene with their house groups during tutorial on Tuesday. They will develop a house chant, during that time, I believe...
“In the coming weeks, students will be able to earn points for their houses through participation in various campus activities. 5 Star will help us track that and develop a friendly competition with rewards along the way. Also, we will be able to identify students who don't seem to be connected to anything at the site, and we will be able to reach out to them to try to figure out what they would be interested in doing.”
Tennis / Pickleball courts at El Molino Campus
Kimberly Burr spoke on behalf of others in the Forestville community who would like to see the courts at El Molino “taken care of.” She has been asking people to sign a petition and finds growing support for the courts, which can be used for tennis or pickleball. Later in the meeting, Jennie Bruneman said that she had contacted three companies to look at repairing the courts but all three were busy during the summer. She hoped to be able to find someone this fall.
50th reunion for Analy class of 1975
The 50th reunion for the Analy class of 1975 was held at Fomasi Ranch event space in south Sebastopol. (Linda Fomasi Collins is a member of the class.) District Trustee Jeanne Fernandes, also a 1975 Analy graduate, was the chair of the committee. “We partied from noon till 9 pm on Saturday and then Sunday had a follow up brunch from 10 till 2! We just wanted to finish all those conversations,” she said.
“Most of our classmates came from Gravenstein. They had the largest eighth grade graduating class prior to high school in the area that year, 1971,” said Fernandes.
Facilities and Technology Staff
Here is a full list of all the behind-the-scenes staff that work over the summer and during the school year to maintain the facilities and grounds on Analy and El Molino campuses.
Laguna: Danny Molina (Custodian II), Ramiro Vazquez Aguirre (Grounds/Custodian II)
Analy: Francisco Maciel-Soto (Head Custodian/Maintenance), Chris Parman (Grounds/Custodian II), Paul Pomposo (Custodian II), Marcos Guillen Rivas (Custodian II) Antonio Soto (Custodian II), Ismael Martinez (Custodian II), Joseph Maciel (Custodian II)
DISTRICT: Jennie Bruneman (Director of Facilities, Bond & Technology), Denise Fisher (Facilities Coordinator), Les Siedentopf (Maintenance Specialist), Logan Atwell (Grounds/Custodian II)
TECHNOLOGY: Jay Fabian (District Technology Coordinator), Brian Lee, (Technology Systems Specialist), Matt Yonker (Technology Systems Specialist), Aidan Ayers (Technology Student Intern).
Don’t want to heap too much praise on you, but the scale of your reporting is wildly impressive. What a great gift you are to our community!