Plans to fast track the closure of Santa Rosa City Schools’ last traditional middle school and merge it into Maria Carrillo High School had their first public airing Monday, when district officials discussed it as one move among what may be many in the coming months to help address the system’s major fiscal crisis.
Under proposal, Rincon Valley Middle School’s approximately 780 students would move to Maria Carrillo by the fall of 2027, two years earlier than originally planned.
District officials have pitched the accelerated timeline to save up to $2.2 million and as way to ensure greater equity across Santa Rosa City Schools, which already closed two other middle schools earlier this year and converted its two oldest high schools to 7-12 campuses. A third middle school, Hilliard Comstock, is planned to close this spring and its students moved to Piner High School.
“Every decision we are making right now is a financial decision,” said Trustee Nick Caston, who leads the district’s finance subcommittee, which hosted Monday’s discussion at district headquarters in Santa Rosa.
The full board will consider the proposal at the board’s study session on Wednesday.
The move comes on the heels of a dire warning recently from the Sonoma County Office of Education, which called on Santa Rosa City Schools to make swift, deep cuts of up to $15 million by February to avoid state takeover.
That deficit and risk of receivership exists even after the district’s decision this past February to close six campuses over two years, while also laying off more than 150 employees.
Interim Superintendent Lisa August said district leaders continue to consider all of their cost-savings options.
“We are being mindful as we are bringing recommendations forward and … we are considering everything within the budget. There are no sacred cows,” she said.
Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools Amie Carter, whose fiscal warning capped a six-month study by her office of the Santa Rosa school system, applauded the district’s move to consider big cost-saving measures, including the hastened closure timeline for Rincon Valley Middle.
At the same time, Carter called on district officials to run the numbers on how many students could potentially flee the district if no traditional middle and high school structure remains as an option.
Parents shared that concern.
“I do hope that our school district keeps one traditional middle school and high school as an option,” said Megan Fonseca, treasurer of the Rincon Valley Middle School parents club.
“It’s nice to have a balance… I think if we convert every school it’s likely families are going to explore other districts that have a traditional route.”
Parents need more information from the two schools — Santa Rosa High and Montgomery High — that have already undergone the monumental transition for this school year, she said. She called the accelerated merger proposal for Maria Carrillo “extremely unfortunate.”
“Whatever information comes out of that will either fuel the fire or quench the flames for the families in this neighborhood,” Fonseca said.
Implications for SR Accelerated Charter
The vacated Rincon Valley Middle School campus could allow for the expansion of the Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter, a potential revenue generator for the district.
The charter is one of two — the other is Cesar Chavez Language Academy — located in other districts in the city, and their renewal could be a point of contention as soon as next year.
With the possibility that the outside districts would deny their renewal, Caston said it was important to start thinking early — and creatively — about alternative plans.
Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter, located on the Rincon Valley Middle School campus, is first in line for examination. Monday’s meeting was the first time ideas for its expansion or relocation were floated as options to avoid any potential renewal fight.
“There’s the real possibility and challenge for Accelerated Charter, because of its location, that it’s not going to continue past June of next year in its current location, how it’s configured,” Caston said.
Santa Rosa Teachers Association President Kathryn Howell said the news about any restructuring took the school community by surprise.
“Please, please, please don’t make any changes to Accelerated Charter until you’ve had a chance to speak to the community,” she asked the subcommittee members during public comment. “It is not a traditional elementary school and there are certain things that would have to be in place in order to maintain the integrity of the program.”
District leaders provided three options for what could happen to the charter school, which serves about 125 students in grades five and six.
The first — and least likely, trustees and district leaders say — would be to close the school.
The second option would be to relocate the school to an existing campus within the SRCS’s elementary boundaries. But, with the impact of recent school closures on the capacity of existing elementary campuses stretched, the possibility that the 120 students could fit on an elementary campus would be hard to make a reality.
Any of the campuses in the district’s elementary boundaries are eligible for the charter to move into, August said, but only few could make the space. Those campuses include Abraham Lincoln, which would have to relocate its special education classes, and Hilliard Comstock Middle School, which is set to close in June.
The third option, shared for the first time publicly on Monday afternoon, would be to expand the accelerated charter to serve grades 4-12 in order to bypass the renewal process and allow the school to remain on the Rincon Valley Middle School campus without approval from Rincon Valley Union School District.
The expansion would increase the student body by almost 750 students by adding three classes in each grade level.
Trustees Caston and Mark Kirby asked district leaders to bring more information Wednesday about the cost of the expansion, the number of students required for there to be enough increased revenue, whether there are examples of a similar model nearby and if there is interest from the community to enroll in the expanded program.
At the same time, they asked district leaders to be clear on what physical improvements are needed at the remaining schools — including the alterations to make the move of middle schoolers onto Maria Carrillo’s campus possible.
District officials, in the meantime, are advancing the establishment of the so-called 7-11 committee, a state requirement for districts that are considering selling surplus properties. On the list of sites to consider are Brook Hill Elementary on Vallejo Street, Santa Rosa French-American Charter School on Sonoma Avenue and Lewis Early Learning Academy on Lomitas Avenue.
An in-depth version of the district’s plans for the charter school – likely taking into account subcommittee suggestions – will be presented on Wednesday night’s study session, which starts at 4 p.m. at Santa Rosa City Hall.
Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.
You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.