Amie Carter launches campaign for Sonoma County schools chief

At a time when schools are dealing with entrenched pandemic pressures and declining enrollment amid a rising wave of polarization around classroom content and instruction, the notion of stepping into the role of Sonoma County’s top school official might intimidate some.

But Amie Carter said she isn’t afraid of a challenge.

“Schools have really become that intersection for America’s culture war. It’s a particularly hard place to be right now,” said Carter, assistant superintendent of education services for the Marin County Office of Education. “Strangely enough, that’s part of the draw for me.”

In November, Carter, 50, became the first person to launch her campaign for Sonoma County superintendent of schools. The primary election will take place in June 2022, with no November runoff needed if a candidate secures more than half the vote.

If elected, Carter would be the first woman to hold the schools chief position in Sonoma County since 1926.

Carter, a Petaluma resident and former principal of Rohnert Park’s Rancho Cotate High School, said she hopes to bring a combination of compassion, experience and a spirit of collaboration to the role.

That experience includes both her years as a classroom teacher, principal and assistant superintendent, and her insight as a mother to students who came up through Petaluma schools.

“I’m a bit of a crusader,” Carter said. “That’s my personality style when it comes to education. It’s changed my life, the lives of my kids and I know it’s something that can impact the outcome for every single child in Sonoma County.”

Steve Herrington, who has held the county superintendent of schools position since 2010, announced his plans in October to retire after his term expires at the end of 2022, capping 51 years of working in education. He was unopposed in each of his elections.

California’s county superintendents of schools are tasked with oversight of local school districts’ fiscal stability, as well as administration of services provided by the county office of education, including special education and other academic support.

In her role as assistant superintendent at the Marin County Office of Education, Carter has been on the front lines with Marin school districts during the pandemic, helping implement new guidance and laws during the pandemic. She has been in the role since January, after serving as assistant superintendent of the Novato Unified School District for nearly three years.

“It’s a fascinating nexus to be in and I think it’s going to really serve me well,” she said.

Marin County is home to around 31,900 public school students — about half the amount of Sonoma County’s 66,450 public K-12 students.

In addition to Carter, Santa Rosa resident Brad Coscarelli, currently principal of Hidden Valley Elementary in Santa Rosa, also plans to throw his hat in the ring for the elected post. Coscarelli plans to launch his campaign sometime closer to the new year, he said.

Carter has announced core policy priorities on which she plans to focus her energy as a candidate. Those include diversifying the teacher workforce, expanding Sonoma County’s Portrait of a Graduate program, increasing student engagement and advocating for increased education funding while emphasizing efficient use of limited dollars.

“Right now, we need sanity, we need compassion,” Carter said. “We need experience, engagement and collaboration.”

The Portrait of a Graduate program, a collaborative effort between the Career and Technical Education Foundation, Cradle to Career Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Office of Education, offers something of a blueprint for characteristics that educators to try to instill in local students.

The list includes curiosity, empathy, communications and ethics.

“What it highlights goes really into the essential skills that any human beings need to be successful in the workplace or in college,” Carter said.

Boosting student engagement should include greater exposure to workforce training opportunities and making sure students find engaging, accessible extracurricular activities, she said.

“A lot of our high school students are reporting they don’t feel engaged,” Carter said. “I think that’s really an opportunity where we need to lean in.”

Diversifying the teacher workforce also plays a role in keeping students hooked on school, she said.

Carter pointed to a key priority of Herrington’s as he departs next year: building subsidized housing for local educators on a county-owned property.

SCOE is now engaged in a feasibility study examining the possibility of building 40 to 60 affordable housing units on a 4-acre plot of land the agency owns behind Amarosa Academy in southwest Santa Rosa.

Herrington in October said he hopes to see the land rezoned for workforce housing before he leaves office. School districts would then be able to participate in a joint powers agreement to build and manage a portion of those units for their own staff.

As a young teacher in the Central Valley, Carter relied on subsidized housing herself. She called it a “game changer” in her career.

“It gave me a leg up, a community to be invested in,” Carter said. “I see that as a huge benefit. We have such a problem recruiting teachers right now ... we have to do more early on the entry-level end.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect that Brad Coscarelli is principal of Hidden Valley Elementary School. The satellite campus no longer exists.

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.