Honoring teen parents who stick with schooling

Manny Hernandez wants to be a better man, a better role model for his 3-year-old son.

On Tuesday, as the 20-year-old held a certificate marking his impending graduation from high school and completion of the California School Age Families Education program, he said he had made a major step in that direction.

"I wanted to set an example for my son. My parents didn't graduate. My dad actually dropped out in second grade in Mexico and my mom dropped out in 10th grade," he said. "I have never been the school type of guy, doing homework. I don't want my son to be that way."

Hernandez was among 60 students from across Sonoma County honored Tuesday at a celebratory brunch for earning their high school diploma or equivalent by working through the Cal-SAFE program.

"To most, a high school diploma is something common and simple and something that people should just go and get," said Morgan Wells, a Cal-SAFE alumna who become pregnant with her daughter at 13 and now is a clinical medical assistant with the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

"It's a huge accomplishment to parent a child at the same time you are trying to get your education," she told the graduates. "I hope you take this diploma and go further. It's just a gateway."

Cal-SAFE began in 2000, a merger of multiple state programs created to keep young mothers and fathers in school until graduation while offering parent instruction and day care.

In addition to receiving the certificates and medals, most students will participate in formal graduations at their affiliated campuses in the coming weeks.

In 1996, 521 babies were born to mothers ages 15 to 19 years old in Sonoma County. For the period 2007-09, the average was 409 per year, according to Pauline Richardson of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services Teen Parent Connections program.

Of the five Cal-SAFE programs in Sonoma County, at least one will be cut from the coming school year because of budget woes.

Windsor, which has served 120 teen parents and more than 40 infants and toddlers since 2005-06, has said it can no longer afford the $111,000 it spent this year on its Cal-SAFE program, and opted to divert that money into its general fund, said chief business officer Mary Downey.

"Effective next year, 2011-12, that program is being eliminated," she said

The Windsor School Board on Tuesday night was scheduled to consider funding a dramatically reduced program based solely funds tied to participating students' daily attendance. "We want to create a bridge program, then hopefully in better times" it can be re-established, she said.

Those cuts, evident up and down the state, have a long term affect, said Gail Aune, retired administrator of the Cal-SAFE program at Nueva Vista High School in Santa Rosa.

"We are not just serving the students, we are serving their babies, the next generation," she said.