Montgomery High principal, assistant principal placed on leave in wake of student’s fatal stabbing

Montgomery High School Principal Adam Paulson has been placed on paid administrative leave in the wake of the March 1 fatal stabbing of a student at the Santa Rosa campus.

Paulson’s departure, as well as that of Assistant Principal Tyler Ahlborn, who was also placed on leave, was announced Sunday evening in an email to Montgomery parents and students from Santa Rosa Schools Superintendent Anna Trunnell.

Trunnell announced that Laurie Fong, a former Montgomery principal, would replace Paulson for remainder of the school and resign from her post on the Santa Rosa City Schools board. She returned Monday to the school where she was principal from 2006 to 2016.

The moves come at a tumultuous time for the Montgomery High, where student, parent and teacher concerns about school safety have reverberated in public calls for action since 16-year-old Jayden Pienta was killed March 1 in a classroom stabbing on the Hahman Drive campus.

The 15-year-old schoolmate arrested in the stabbing, faces voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Santa Rosa police officials announced that two students who had been sent home by school administrators Friday after knives were found in their possession have been arrested on weapons offenses.

Police said they initiated an investigation after learning initially from a parent that school officials had notified Montgomery families on Friday that the students had been disciplined and sent home.

The school’s notice to police came at 8:30 p.m. Friday, about four hours after a 4:37 p.m. email to parents and about eight hours after the suspects — a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy — were discovered on campus with the knives, according to timelines presented by police and school officials.

Santa Rosa police officials also announced Monday that Chief John Cregan, at Trunnell’s request, has assigned Officer Luigi Valencia to the Montgomery campus for a two-day rotation, ending Tuesday.

Valencia will be supporting campus staff with maintaining “a safe learning environment for students and teachers,” according to a police statement.

The campus assignment is the first for a Santa Rosa officer on one of the city’s middle or high schools since the school board opted to discontinue the campus officer program in 2020 amid national upheaval stemming from cases of police violence.

Both Trunnell and Fong declined a request for interview Monday through district spokeswoman Vanessa Wedderburn.

“Ms. Fong's priority and focus for the day today is integrating herself back into the administration at (Montgomery High School) as it should be,” Wedderburn wrote in an email to The Press Democrat. “We appreciate your understanding particularly given her need to pour all of her attention into the safety and support of Monty students and staff.”

Wedderburn confirmed that Paulson and Ahlborn are on paid administrative leave but did not provide information about their current salary. “I nor anyone may speak with the public regarding an employment matter, as we have strict obligations to honor employee privacy rights,” she said in an email.

“I will share that the decision was not made lightly,“ she added.

Paulson was paid $137,490 for the school year ending in 2021, according to the latest records available via Transparent California, a website that posts public employee compensation figures.

Ahlborn earned $133,410 for the same period, including $19,675 in other pay, according to Transparent California records.

In her statement Sunday, Trunnell said she hoped Fong’s return to the Montgomery campus would bring stability to the struggling campus, where student outcry over crumbling facilities predated the fatal stabbing.

“Resigning her position from the Board of Education allows her to return to MHS and be part of the healing and to work closely with the district and school community as we build the security and social emotional supports for your school,” Trunnell said.

Kaesa Enemark, a coordinator in the district office, and Ryan Thompson, vice principal at Rincon Middle School, will also join the Montgomery administrative team to support its teachers, staff, students and families, Trunnell said.

A pair of Sunday night public notices — Trunnell’s letter to Montgomery High families and a wider district “action plan” posted on its website — outlined additional steps underway that include more adult supervision across Santa Rosa’s campuses and increased police patrols near its high school campuses.

Specific steps include:

• A newly created Safety Advisory Round Table, or SART, for “two-way communication” between district officials and the high school campuses. The team will consist of six student representatives, two parents, two community representatives, two teachers, two school administrators and two district officials, with applications available March 20 and a first meeting April 4.
• Bringing on more mental health and counseling professionals from the district and outside agencies for the Montgomery campus and other schools, including after-school services and during spring break; and expediting much-needed facilities repairs and maintenance at Montgomery.
• Bolstering maintenance and custodial staff at Mongtomery High and assembling a priority list of projects to speed campus repairs.

Kathryn Howell, president of Santa Rosa Teachers Association, welcomed Fong’s return to the Montgomery campus after her tenure with the school board.

Howell said she hopes Fong and her former colleagues on the school board will recognize that issues related to violence at Montgomery are not exclusive to that campus and likely won’t be resolved by merely removing the campus leadership.

“Teachers are hoping that with Laurie actually at the school, it will be a little clearer that this is not just a problem at Montgomery, not just about one administrator,” Howell said.

Howell said disruptive and violent student behavior speaks to much larger issues in the local community and beyond. She pointed to school staffing shortages, families increasingly under financial distress, the need for more student supervision at home, and a culture that sensationalizes campus violence through social media.

“It’s a nationwide problem,” she said. “It’s not unique to Santa Rosa City Schools, not unique to the county. Part of the problem is the assumption that schools can be all things to students.”

But Howell said that adding administrators to campuses is a good idea. She said that in the past year and a half, too many administrators have been pulled from their school oversight duties to fill in as substitutes.

“If there’s no substitutes on campus at the beginning of class, an administrator will take their place,” she said. “It takes people away from their jobs in the school office, from their jobs keeping the school safe.”

The addition of a campus officer Monday and Tuesday at Montgomery High stemmed from weekend discussions between Trunnell and Cregan, according to a Santa Rosa police statement Monday.

“Our goal is to put this resource and service on the campus for increased security and to help us assess needs and optimal strategies for moving forward,” Trunnell said in her statement Sunday.

She indicated the district will continue to work with the police department to create long-term safety strategies. The board has yet to schedule a public discussion of the campus officer program.

Paulson joined the Santa Rosa district as principal in 2020, after seven years with the Palo Alto Unified School District. There he served as principal, assistant principal and dean of students.

Ahlborn became assistant principal at Montgomery in 2021, having been a teacher at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa for 11 years.

The district did not respond to requests for more detailed information about the terms of Paulson’s and Ahlborn’s leave.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A headline description accompanying this story has been revised to accurately refer to the duration of Assistant Vice Principal Tyler Ahlborn’s leave. It is still to be determined, according to district officials.