Lots of changes at local schools

<p>Students many not notice all the changes, but much will be different when school opens next week. </p><p>Most local schools, including those in the area's two largest school districts, Petaluma City Schools and Old Adobe Union School District, open on Wednesday, Aug. 17. Students attending Corona Creek and Meadow School in the Waugh School District start classes on Thursday, Aug. 18.</p><p>One change students in Petaluma City Schools are sure to notice is the addition of two days to the school year. Students this year will attend school 177 days compared to 175 last year. Three days have been added to the teachers' year, with a work day in addition to the two classroom days new on the school calendar. </p><p>There have been several changes in top administrators, starting with a new superintendent for Petaluma City Schools. Steve Bolman, former deputy superintendent, replaces Greta Viguie, who retired after eight years as district superintendent.</p><p>Bolman will serve as interim superintendent for one year. He has indicated he is interested in applying for the permanent position.</p><p>Bolman will be working with new principals at Petaluma High School, where retired administrators Frank Lynch and Marilyn Stratford replace Brian Howard, who left in June to become principal at Willowside Middle School in the Oak Grove Union School District, near Sebastopol. Lynch and Stratford will share principal responsibilities on an interim basis until a permanent principal is hired. </p><p>Both are retired administrators with a variety of experience in several different positions. Lynch has served as principal of Petaluma High in the past and Stratford is a former principal at Casa Grande.</p><p>There will also be a new assistant principal on an interim basis at Petaluma, with Bennett Holley filling the position. </p><p>Enrollment in the Petaluma Elementary School District is growing, although the wave has yet to hit the secondary schools, where enrollment continues to lag. </p><p>There is a new principal at Grant Elementary School, where Catina Haugen replaces Judith Martin. Haugen has been a teacher at the school for the past 14 years. </p><p>Also at Grant, construction has started on the long-anticipated new school track.</p><p>At McKinley Elementary School, Gina Hense has been named to the new position of administrative intern to help principal Sherry Devine, who will be working only half-time as she looks toward retirement. </p><p>There will be a new sixth-grade academy charter school located at Petaluma Junior High School. The academy will give students a taste of secondary school life, while relieving some of the student-population pressure on elementary schools. </p><p>The budget continues to be a concern for Petaluma City Schools, as it is with all school districts in the area. </p><p>Bolman explained that state funding so far has remained flat in comparison with last year, but that could change in December if revenues are less than anticipated. </p><p>“If the revenues don't come in as anticipated, education will get hit,” he said. “At this time, we are working with what we know.”</p><p>St. Vincent High students return Tuesday, Aug. 16 to a spruced-up campus. The arcade in the center of the school has been completely renovated and improved. There is a new look to the front of the school. The artificial-turfed playing fields have been improved. From a student's perspective, perhaps best of all, there are new lockers. </p><p>“It was all done with gifts from school benefactors,” said St. Vincent principal John Walker. “We had a lot of former students working on our construction projects.”</p><p>St. Vincent will have 95 freshmen this fall, the biggest group of incoming ninth-graders in the last five years. The jazz band will expand to two sections and 80 students have signed up for the school's award-winning debate team. </p><p>“I think people are very excited this year,” Walker said.</p><p>Bolman is one of several new superintendents.</p><p>Cynthia Pilar replaces Diane Zimmerman as superintendent of the Old Adobe Union School District. Zimmerman retired at the end of the last school year.</p><p>Pilar comes to Old Adobe from the Sonoma County Office of Education after serving in several administrative positions, including as principal of Montgomery High School.</p><p>Adam Schaible, former principal at Willowside Middle School, replaces the retiring Kim Wilding in the Dunham Elementary School District. </p><p>The Waugh School District Board of Trustees this week hired Robert Cmelak as district superintendent-principal to replace Scott Mahoney, who left to become interim superintendent of the Ross School District in Marin County. Cmelak comes from the Redlands Unified School District in Southern California where, for the last three years, he has been principal of Judson & Brown Elementary School. </p><p>Charles Bush is the new superintendent-principal at Cinnabar Elementary School District and Charter School. He replaces Stephen Collins, who has been serving as interim superintendent-principal since Robert Ecker retired in June. </p><p>Cinnabar becomes a charter school this year, focusing on English language learners and technology in the education process. </p><p>Bush comes to Cinnabar from the Eureka City School District, where he had been principal of Zane Middle School. </p><p>There is no change in the administration of Wilson School, the only school in the Wilmar Union School District, where Eric Hoppes returns as superintendent-principal.</p><p>The big news at Wilson is that enrollment is up by about 20 students, and there will be two kindergarten-only classes this year, as opposed to one kindergarten and one kindergarten/first grade class last year. A new kindergarten teacher has been added.</p><p>With the help of volunteers, the campus has been spruced up with landscaping and the remodeling of two classrooms. A new reading garden, the Eagle Scout project of Billy Marshall from Troop 105, will soon be ready. </p><p>Wilson will have a back-to-school night on Aug. 18, with school starting Aug. 22.</p><p>School also starts Aug. 22 for Two Rock Union School, the only national Blue Ribbon Award-winning school in Sonoma County last school year. Superintendent-principal Mike Simpson traveled to Washington, D.C., over the summer to accept the award.</p><p>Layoff notices were sent out to several staff members in the spring, but Simpson is hopeful those teachers will be retained when the school board meets this week. </p><p>The campus has been cleaned and improved with the help of volunteers from the Two Rock Coast Guard training facility. </p><p>Liberty School will be one of the last of the local schools to begin the new school year, opening on Aug. 24. </p><p>Superintendent-principal Chris Rafanelli said there are no major changes at the school, although students and staff are eager to get the year started. </p><p>Each year, the school staff concentrates on a theme and concludes the study with a field trip. This year's theme will be tide pools, with the project concluding with a trip to the ocean for all students. </p><p>Rafanelli said the school enrollment should be about the same as last year. </p><p>(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)</p>