‘A fresh start’: Hidden Valley Elementary students begin new school year

Shrieks of delight could be heard from the playground Wednesday as students returned to Hidden Valley Elementary School for the first day of school.

Many families welcomed the start of the new school year, particularly after losing the school’s satellite campus in the October wildfires.

“It definitely feels like a fresh start,” said Prell Tuavale, mother of 7-year-old Isaiah Shipley, one of about 80 students who began school last year at the satellite campus and had to move down the road to the main campus after the fires.

On Wednesday, Isaiah and his friends chased each other on the blacktop before class. Asked what he looked forward to most, he said it was new headphones he planned to use for class.

“For my math games,” the second-grader said with a wide grin.

Donning a blue #HawkStrong T-shirt, reading interventionist teacher Marcia Seim Bossier hugged parents and danced with the kids as they were dropped off at the school, which has about 540 students this year. Several parents chatted with her about how their kids did with their summer reading.

“Everyone is so welcoming and open-hearted. It’s great,” Tuavale said.

Just over half of Sonoma County’s 70,000 K-12 public school students began their academic year Wednesday.

Students’ excitement at Hidden Valley served as a testament to the community’s resilience in the face of adversity and trauma from last year, far from over for many students.

Between the two Hidden Valley campuses, about a quarter of the student population - around 161 students - lost homes in the fires. School officials said they’re implementing a new emotional curriculum to support students.

Over the summer, it also installed three portable classrooms adjacent to the basketball hoops. When the satellite students were moved onto the main campus last year, the school had to get creative with finding classroom space. With the addition of the portables, every teacher now has their own classroom, said Brad Coscarelli, the new principal.

Coscarelli, who previously served as an administrator at Santa Rosa High School for 15 years, said his four children attended Hidden Valley.

The new assistant principal, Jean Walker, also went to the school when she was a child.

“It feels like home,” Walker said about starting her new role. “Once a hawk, always a hawk.”

Bossier, whose children attended Hidden Valley beginning in 1991, said that while she has strong roots at the main campus, she misses the atmosphere of the smaller satellite campus, where she spent nearly five years teaching. She got the keys for her new portable classroom Monday.

“You can imagine getting ready for the first day of school in less than 48 hours,” Bossier said.

Heather Dunn, mother of 6-year-old Jeremiah, said her family also misses the satellite campus. Her husband, Mike, an electrical engineer at Keysight Technologies, used to walk to the campus to visit their son for lunch.

“It helped that they were all in the same class,” Heather Dunn said. “I think they did a great job with the transition.”