Wood shop program saved by developer

Just a week after the woodshop program at Santa Rosa High School was axed for the upcoming school year, two benefactors have offered to underwrite the program to keep it in place.

Cindy and Bill Gallaher of Santa Rosa have offered approximately $85,000 to Santa Rosa City Schools to keep the program operating next year.

?I?m floating,? Santa Rosa School Board president Donna Jeye said. ?A community member stepping forward in a time of need ? it?s wonderful.?

?No one wanted to shut that program down,? she said.

But faced with multi-million dollar cuts throughout Sonoma County?s largest district, that is just what the board voted to do last week.

When the Sonoma County Office of Education regional occupational program withdrew funding for three of the five woodshop courses offered at Santa Rosa next year, district officials decided they could not afford to backfill that funding nor continue to fund the remaining two courses.

That meant that about 140 students who had signed up for introductory or advanced woodshop would have to squeeze into another elective, many of which were already filled.

The outpouring of support for the class was swift.

About 70 students were on the front lawn of the Mendocino Avenue campus protesting the cuts at noon Tuesday when Principal Jim Goddard received a call from Associate Superintendent Doug Bower confirming the donation.

?Things have been moving very fast,? Bower said.

The board is expected to vote on the deal at its May 13 meeting.

?I went to Santa Rosa High and I took woodshop,? said Bill Gallaher, a class of ?69 grad. ?It was the class that saved me. I was a terrible student. I don?t know how many classes that I missed in my senior year...but I made woodshop every day and I loved it.?

Gallaher is owner of Oakmont Senior Living, a founder of First Community Bank and developer of Varenna in Fountaingrove.

?It seems sort of urgent right now. We wanted to go ahead and do it,? he said. ?We are just fortunate to have the means.?

Second year woodshop teacher Mitch Utsey said the whole process has taught him how much the class means to some of his students.

?I have been surprised with how invested the students are. I knew I had a lot of students who are really, really into what we are doing but I had no idea how much some of these guys are into it,? he said. ?It?s been a real eye opener for me, so I?m kind of in shock.?

District officials on Tuesday expressed hope that the infusion of funds can be linked with expected federal stimulus dollars to revamp the program into a three-tiered career pathway program.

Despite its strong enrollment and student loyalty, the woodshop program does not have the district-required third course necessary for certification.

The expansion of the program has also been hampered by a decades-old facility that cannot accommodate some pieces of larger-scale construction equipment.

Under financial pressure, those shortcomings were reasons cited by the board when they decided to drop the program.

The district has cut $3.4 million in programs as a result of funding cuts or loss of revenue, and expects to cut another $5 million next year.

May 13 the board is expected to approve a series of moves that could increase class sizes, including in previously protected kindergarten through third grade, and ninth grade English and math; reduce discretionary site funding; and increase the number of combination grade classes the elementary level.