Analy alumni, parents hold protest against renaming high school

Alumni and parents opposed to renaming Analy High School as students from El Molino High start attending classes there in the fall protested the move Wednesday at a rally in Sebastopol.

“Why change the name?” asked Gretchen Erdman, who has family members who go or who have gone to both schools. “This feels like collateral damage. This feels like the Hatfields and the McCoys.”

She said her second cousin, who was enrolled at El Molino, will attend Santa Rosa High School rather than go to Analy High.

The protest was held “to educate the Analy community so they’ll work to stop the rebranding,” said rally organizer alumnus Kasey Hillier. “I’m against them rushing this and then turning around and giving us gray and white temporary uniforms.”

At the rally was a sea of adults wearing Analy Tigers blue and white T-shirts, a few small children and dogs squinting in the 90-degree sun at Ives Park. Many were lining up to sign school board recall petitions and picking up flyers about upcoming events. Another rally will be held at the park at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Of particular concern to the Analy community since March is the likelihood that their 113-year-old school name will be changed, along with its colors and Tigers mascot. People were ticked off, including Lorene Hines, class of 1981, who said she drove 2½ hours from Sacramento to attend the rally. “I see no good reason for them to change the name,” she said.

Jim Bertoli of the class of 1978, a Sonoma County Superior Court judge who has been announcing Analy football games for 43 years, said he’s part of the committee working to “keep Analy High School Analy High School.” He led the protest rally.

Bertoli and others pointed to the cost of rebranding the campus, including changing scoreboards, uniforms, letterhead and other things, when the district says they have to close El Molino to save money. Bertoli said he didn’t think the board has a “flipping idea what it’s going to cost,“ and contended the district might have to spend “seven figures” to make the name changes.

The district estimates new sports and band uniforms will cost about $20,000, according to Superintendent Toni Beal.

Another lead organizer, Loretta Castleberry, a Sebastopol resident and Analy graduate, said before the rally that the Analy, Laguna and El Molino communities have found increasing solidarity as the board continues to pursue consolidation.

At the protest, she told the crowd they would like to recall all five board members because, though only three voted for the consolidation, two voted for the name change. However, because the recall campaign was already started against the three, they must continue with that by law, Castleberry said.

The consolidation effort is well underway as the district seeks to grapple with declining enrollment and close a $2 million budget deficit after voters in March rejected two local tax measures that could have shored up the district’s finances.

Castleberry said she has heard from some west county residents who are confused about the specifics of consolidation or its impact.

The projected budget gap is driven primarily by declining enrollment and flat to marginal increases in state funding that have not kept pace with rising staff and facilities costs. Districtwide, the student population has declined by nearly 12% over the past five years, and by about 32% since 1981.

A 2019 alumnus, Xander Maniaci, 20, said he saw things differently than the school boosters at the protest.

“I never felt the camaraderie they felt,” he said. “I think it’s a shame for the El Molino students to have to leave, but I think it’s a bigger problem happening everywhere because of higher taxes. People can’t afford to buy a home around here. It reaches a point where the consolidations will keep happening. Analy could run out of students too.”

The school board approved moving forward with the consolidation of the two high schools on March 10. The plan they approved involves moving El Molino’s students to the Analy campus and shifting both the district administrative offices and Laguna High School to El Molino’s vacated campus.

Since then, district officials have discussed plans to continue to use the El Molino campus for classes, athletics and other purposes for the students of the combined high school. It remains unclear what overall fiscal impact that would have on the $1.2 million the district would save through the consolidation.

The school board in March gave its blessing to rebranding. Beal convened a unity committee that included a group of students from each school dedicated to rebranding.

But members put the brakes on the process after realizing new costs were looming. The first comes from the recall petitions, which could cost the district upward of $100,000 if they qualify for a special election ballot.

In addition, the West Sonoma County Union High School District is embroiled in a lawsuit brought by the Community Alliance for Responsible Education, a group of El Molino community members who say the district failed to meet the level of review required by the state’s bedrock environmental law when implementing its consolidation plan. Those costs are ongoing.

The initial hearing in the lawsuit was June 10, and a trial date is set for Sept. 22, according to the online docket in the Sonoma County Superior Court. C.A.R.E. is working to file an injunction by the end of the month asking the judge to halt consolidation prior to that hearing, said Jessalee Mills, a Forestville resident and El Molino graduate.

“We want to make sure we’ve got all the info presented before we move forward,” she said.

On May 12, the board voted to move forward with a placeholder name until it decides to resume the permanent rebranding process. At the suggestion of the rebranding committee, the Sebastopol campus will be called West County High School next year.

The district will purchase the new sports and band uniforms. If the name changes again after a full rebranding effort, those uniforms will be used for junior varsity or freshman teams, or as practice uniforms, Beal said.

You can reach Staff Writers Kathleen Coates at 707-521-5209 or kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com and Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com.