Santa Rosa Schools likely to abandon effort to form own career program

<p>The state Department of Education on Thursday put Santa Rosa City Schools' application to run its own career technical education program on hold and Santa Rosa's board next week will consider rescinding its controversial application.</p><p>The abrupt turnaround comes just two days after Sonoma County's largest school district submitted an application to the state Department of Education to break from the county Office of Education's Regional Occupational Program and run its own operation.</p><p>Santa Rosa officials had expressed concern that the district accounts for more than 40 percent of the county's students, but receives just 22 percent of ROP classes that include agriculture, culinary arts, auto repair and welding, among others.</p><p>County schools chief Carl Wong, who argued that Santa Rosa's departure from the countywide system would harm every other participating high school, responded by freezing funding for all ROP sections until Feb. 26. If Santa Rosa doesn't withdraw its application by then, it's approximately $550,000 in county funding will be doled out to other ROP participants, Wong said.</p><p>But on Thursday, the tone was considerably softer, as both sides said they were committed to negotiating.</p><p>"In the end, the key is getting the students top-notch career technical education. I think Santa Rosa provides that," said Bill Carle, Santa Rosa School Board president.</p><p>Carle said he would be surprised if the talks didn't lead to Santa Rosa getting a greater number of ROP classes in the fall.</p><p>The debate began with Santa Rosa contending it is shorted about $450,000 a year based on the percentage of students it represents -- the number that drives the state funding formula.</p><p>That sparked the district to submit an application to receive its share of the funding directly from the state.</p><p>But on Thursday, state officials alerted both county and district representatives that the application was incomplete and not likely to be considered until well after the March 15 deadline to alert teachers if they are at risk of layoff.</p><p>State officials also have said Santa Rosa does not meet many of the key criteria, including size and proving its withdrawal won't harm other districts.</p><p>On Thursday, the state's position, along with meetings between board members and district and county staff, persuaded Carle to put the issue back before the full board at the Feb. 10 meeting. The staff recommendation will be to rescind the waiver.</p><p>"I will highly recommend that the board does. I would be disappointed if they don't do it," he said.</p><p>The turnaround has been swift. At the Jan. 27 meeting, Santa Rosa officials called county staff heavy-handed in their dealing with district career technical staff.</p><p>But the paramount complaint was what district officials perceive as an ongoing, lopsided distribution of classes across the county.</p><p>Santa Rosa this year received funding for 40 ROP sections, the same as Petaluma, which accounts for just 17 percent of the county's students.</p><p>According to district staff, the west county district accounts for 11 percent of enrollment but gets 19 percent of the classes, and Sonoma provides nearly 7 percent of the county's students but gets 10.5 percent of the classes.</p><p>Wong told the county Board of Education that the focus of the Regional Occupational Program would continue to countywide and not district by district.</p><p>But Wong also called Santa Rosa's concerns about equity "legitimate."</p><p>"Absolutely," he said. "It's a perfectly legitimate inquiry given a district of their size, given the number of students, given the number of programs. Should they be supported at a higher level? I think it's a perfectly legitimate question."</p><p>Wong said he expects Santa Rosa to receive at least the same number of county-funded class next year, if not more.</p><p>Staff writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat</p><p>.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com.</p>