Wednesday Board meeting leaves community with uncertainty

The School Board meeting held on 2/19/25 (Natalia Woods/The Puma Prensa)

Written By: Natalia Woods, A&E Editor

After nearly six hours of intense comment and debate at Wednesday night’s Santa Rosa City Schools Board meeting, the Board was unable to make a decision about middle school and high school closures, leaving the fate of the schools and their communities up in the air.

More than an hour before the start of the meeting, concerned members of the community waited outside the Santa Rosa City Hall’s Council Chambers. Though the Board had been meeting in the auditorium at Santa Rosa High School for weeks, they made a last-minute decision to switch it back to the Council Chambers to maintain neutrality in their decision. This lowered the number of available seats in the meeting from 1,000 to 180, which was evident during the meeting with half of the waiting crowd still outside when it had started. The Board strictly capped entry, only letting person-by-person in as people came out. 

Concerned members of the public (Natalia Woods/The Puma Prensa)

Public Comment 

The meeting began with public comment, which despite running for the full 90 minutes, still wasn’t enough time for everyone to talk. Almost every single comment was from anxious residents of Southwest Santa Rosa, advocating to keep Elsie Allen High School open. Gabriel Albavera, Principal of Elsie Allen spoke on behalf of the school, saying the Board is prioritizing the people who are threatening to leave over the current parents of the community. “Our parents aren’t going to complain, they’re not going to threaten you because they trust you,” he said. “They trust you're going to do what’s best for your students.”

Jim Leddy, resident of Sonoma County, gave an illuminating perspective during public comment, explaining that “If a disaster were to befall this community, we’d pull together in a way that very few communities in America could do…we’re on the precipice of another disaster if you were to close any high schools.” Leddy urged the board to find a way to keep all high schools open, saying that “the reality is, they all serve community functions beyond mere education.” 

Lisa DeCarbo prompted the Board and the community members to think about their decisions. “Sitting in the audience and feeling the intense unrest, I now ask all of us, will we each have the strength and courage to put our biases aside for every student, to help ease the pain for tonight's decision? Will we each consider every student at every school site to make future transitions less tumultuous? I implore all of you, what will you do to ensure every student every possibility, no matter what?”

The line outside of Council Chambers (Alexa Rios/The Puma Prensa)

The Board’s Discussion

After hearing from the public, the Board transitioned into the only action item for the night; the school consolidation and closure.  Lisa August, Associate Superintendent, presented the Board with projections based on both options; the first being the 3-3-0, in which no high school would close and a 7-12 grade model would be adopted, and the second involving the 3-3-1 scenario, which would include the closure of Elsie Allen. The board spent over three and a half hours going over this information, focusing the majority of their time on the 3-3-0 model. Many of the trustees expressed their concern with the fact that the 3-3-0 model would only pause the issue, not solve it. Trustee Nick Caston shared his hesitation for the pause, saying “It’s been a rolling trauma… knowing that the pause means we do this entire thing again in 12-24 months is really concerning…” Sarah Jenkins, another Trustee, said she could “see it further pitting schools [against] each other.”

The line outside of Council Chambers (Alexa Rios/The Puma Prensa)

Motions

After the initial two hour discussion, a motion passed to extend the meeting to 11:30 p.m. The Board continued to analyze each of the situations, with intense debate sparking between the trustees. 

With nearly 30 minutes left of the meeting, Jeremy De la Torre made a motion to approve the “3-3-pause model,” which would extend the strategic plan until December, and hold off on the closing of any high school; but the vote resulted in a 3-3 tie, shooting down the motion. After his vote against the motion, Caston explained that “[he] can’t vote to support a process that's going to put Montgomery, Santa Rosa, and Elsie in a place of continuing to read the tea leaves up here,” in reference to the uncertainty of the situation’s outcome in the 3-3-pause plan.

Caston called for a motion to continue with the approval of closing the elementary schools, and the voting passed with a 5-1. This will result in Brook Hill and Albert Biella elementary schools closing by June of this year, while Steele Lane Elementary School will close by June 2026.

With the expectation that the uncertainty would end at this meeting, the Board has still left the community unsure of what comes next. The Board was unable to make a motion to recess, and adjourned the meeting without clarification on when the decision is to be made. The following day, the Board shared that a special Board meeting would be held on Friday, February 21 at 3 p.m. at the Lewis Early Learning Academy.

Mitchell Johnson articulated the frustration the entire community felt towards the Board last night and for the past couple of months. “I don’t envy the Board considering the difficult task in front of them, but I will have no sympathy if [they] don't ensure that promises made by District administration will result in actual, long-lasting changes in how our District invests its resources,” he said.

“The cuts must start at the top and they must stick– you have a responsibility to guarantee that.”