Immediately on Thursday, Sonoma Valley Unified School District board may vote on consolidation plan This may result in the closure of one or more schools. This is a difficult issue to discuss and decide, but it may be necessary given declining enrollment rates and financial realities. As families, alumni and teachers face the possibility of a beloved school closing, they should try to remember that school board members don’t like it any more than they do.

district last month School Unification Committee presented a report highlights the difficulties. Enrollment in area schools has fallen by more than a quarter since 2015; this includes the alarming rate of 42% at Altimira Secondary School. This is part of a long-term trend of fewer students in the district dating back at least two decades.

The result is underutilized facilities. Total district enrollment is 3,018 students, but the capacity of the district’s schools is nearly twice that. This means a lot of wasted space, which the district loses money on maintaining.

Things are not expected to improve either. The district estimates it will lose another 600 students by 2031.

Responsible financial management requires exploring all options and considering how many schools the district needs at each level. We do not envy the school board members who are put in this situation, because parents, alumni, and teachers at the affected schools are almost always outraged under these circumstances.

School board members felt the coming heat a few years ago. After the 2022-23 academic year Dunbar Elementary School in Glen Ellen is closed. Most of the students moved to El Verano Elementary School. Parents and teachers were unhappy, in part because board members made the decision late in the school year, leaving little time to prepare students for the change.

This time the board is considering the question earlier, giving more time for their decision to become clear and preparations to begin. To their credit, board members actively pursued public input. The consolidation committee started meeting in January, so this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The school board also encouraged the public to submit comments and attend next Thursday’s meeting.

What everyone should hope to avoid is the deeply divisive and destructive backlash that ensues when the West County Union High School District makes this decision. Close El Molino High School in Forestville in 2021. Critics filed recall petitions against three school board members who supported school closures. This effort failed but damaged relations between the board and the public. One of the three resigned from the board, and another, a longtime member, chose not to seek reelection.

These echoes continue today. The California Commission on Judicial Performance issued a decision on October 30 punishing a local Superior Court judge Due to inappropriate political behavior due to public opposition to the renaming of the high school that continued to exist in the area after the merger.

Closing a school is never easy, but sometimes it is necessary. If the board must make this agonizing choice, everyone involved must accept that fact so that Sonoma Valley schools can move forward without bitterness and acrimony.

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