Bittersweet return for west Sonoma County high students as campus consolidation looms

For El Molino High School sophomore Asa Bush, her first day back on the Forestville campus Monday brought up mixed emotions.

On one hand, she was excited to see how her classmates had changed since she last saw them, and to greet her teachers in person. But as she made her way through the health screening line and toward her classroom, Bush also found herself thinking about the future.

“Personally, it’s still hard for me, being back on campus,” she said. “Because we’re probably not going to be here next year.”

As El Molino, Analy and Laguna high schools all welcomed students for in-person instruction Monday, the transition back to campus marked both a joyous return and a reminder of the broader shifts coming to the school district in the next few months.

The West Sonoma County Union High School District is poised to consolidate Analy and El Molino at the Analy campus in the fall, with Laguna and the district offices set to move to El Molino’s Forestville campus. A group of community members has pledged to fight the consolidation through a legal challenge, but district officials are continuing to lay plans to unify the school communities in the timeline approved by the school board in March.

The campus changes are driven by budget woes in the district and the failure of two measures on the March special election ballot that sought to inject funding to avert school closures.

On Monday, the first day back in more than a year, students and staff found it possible to delight in the effervescent atmosphere of the foggy April morning.

“I’m so excited to see kids back on campus,” said Brooke Bell, a special education teacher at El Molino. “The whole reason we’re teachers is to be around students.”

At the Forestville campus, parents greeted arriving school buses and families did drop-offs with balloons and signs broadcasting Lion pride. Speakers blasted pop hits as students filled out a health assessment through a district app while standing in line to have their temperatures taken and a wristband placed around their arms that signaled they were cleared for entry.

Bell, whose first period of the day was for preparation, stood near the entrance to help students find their way if they looked unsure about where to go.

She said she expected some of her students, amid their excitement about the remainder of the year, to bring up questions about what comes after that.

“Kids are curious,” she said. “They’ll ask questions, some of which we’ll be able to answer and others we might not be able to.”

Nearly 200 El Molino students made their way onto campus for the first day of instruction in person; they’ll return Thursday for their second day of the week, and next week attend Tuesday and Friday. A similarly rotating schedule of two student cohorts is in place at Analy High School in Sebastopol.

The principals of each school said they felt the attention of staff and students was largely on getting into a swing of things with hybrid learning beginning, rather than the changes ahead in the coming months.

“Having teachers and students back, that was at the forefront and really the only thing we could think about and enjoy,” said Matt Dunkle, El Molino principal. “We know there are challenges ahead, but today was all about being together.”

Shauna Ferdinandson, principal of Analy, said she personally hadn’t heard much conversation Monday among students and faculty about consolidation. About 650 students returned for the first day.

“People seemed to be really focused on the rest of this year,” she said. “They want to know about graduation ... and their sights are set on their near future.”

An attempt to reach Allie Greene, principal of Laguna High School, was unsuccessful Monday.

Between the rotating schedules, the health protocols and the new uses of technology, the short term has plenty to occupy a teacher or student’s mind as they settle into new routines.

Walt Hays, who teaches computer science and programming in addition to leading Project Make at Analy High School, kicked off his second class period of the day by introducing both his students in the classroom and those logged onto his class Zoom to the new format of their time together.

“It’s fun to see what you look like in person,” he said to the six students seated at computers in one section of the school’s makerspace. “This is like the first day of school.”

For other teachers, like Lily Smedshammer, who teaches Spanish, the switch to hybrid learning involved some challenges. It will take some time, she said, to learn how best to help students with pronunciations through the opaque shield of her mask.

Students both at home and in the classroom were on Zoom, and whenever a student a few feet away from her unmutes his or her microphone to speak to the whole class, she had to quickly mute herself to avoid feedback on the call.

“It’ll just be an adjustment,” Smedshammer said. “I’m happy to be here, but I’m tentative at the same time.”

Consolidation and its effects on the campus, she said, is “on everyone’s minds,” though she didn’t broach the subject in class Monday. She and fellow Spanish teachers at Analy and El Molino have already begun talking about how they can work together to prepare for next school year.

While she expects the time between now and the start of the year to involve continued challenges, “My hope is that we come together and we can reunify — that we lean on El Molino traditions as well as Analy while we find a new identity together.”

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