photo credit: Jordan Triebel
The March 12, 2025 Santa Rosa City School board of trustees meeting.

This week’s Santa Rosa City Schools board meeting included a last-minute special meeting that interrupted the regularly-scheduled one. 

“If we can just have it on the record that I don’t think having this type of meeting in the middle of the meeting is OK, legally speaking,” Trustee Omar Medina said. “I just want to make sure that’s noted in the minutes. Thank you” 

The special meeting was shoehorned into the board’s agenda after the local chapter of the statewide California School Employees Association sent Santa Rosa Superintendent Dr. Daisy Morales a message late Monday afternoon.

The message was a cease and desist order over the board’s elimination of a teaching position called a restorative specialist.

According to the restorative specialist job description on the Santa Rosa City Schools district website, these employees play “an integral role in providing support to schools and families with behavioral wellbeing and academic success.”

“Our local CSEA did reach out several times to our state CSEA for that we were not able to meet yesterday, our goal was to meet yesterday and not have to bring this resolution forward.” Assistant Superintendent Vicki Zands said. 

On March 15, 300 board-certified employees of Sonoma County’s largest school district will receive a layoff notice. 

Certificated employees are defined as nurses, counselors, and specialists for English language learning students.

According to Zands, the special meeting was at the advice of the board’s legal counsel. 

As a solution, the district’s director of wellness and engagement Stacy Desideri suggested to the board to reorganize the restorative specialist position. 

“I want to make it clear to the board that there is nothing in this plan asking the board to eliminate the restorative specialists,” Desideri said. “I believe the restorative specialists make a difference in our community, both with our students and with our staff, but in times of fiscal crisis, everybody has to tighten their belt a little bit.” 

After the special meeting was adjourned about fifteen minutes later, the board approved the reduction in the district’s classified employees, all voting in favor of this motion except trustee Medina. 

The Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Trustees voted in February to close six of the district’s elementary and middle schools. 

The vote saves all the high schools, but it means other budgetary changes and a redrawing of district boundaries. 

As posted on the district’s website, families impacted by the school closures can apply for intra-district transfers that opened on March 1. 

This week, Desideri shared the priority list of where these students will be placed, emphasizing the importance of keeping siblings together and keeping the least number of students moved from a school where they are already enrolled. 

“We’re looking at embrace, and bringing communities together with help and healing.” Desideri said. 

Communication was a key topic throughout the meeting. Public commentators and the trustees talked about the importance of clear communication during this process. 

“I can't emphasize this enough that students and teachers need to be a part of this.” Trustee Jeremy De La Torre said. 

Families have until March 15 to apply for these transfers.

According to the district, families will be notified by the end of spring break of their student’s transfer status and placement for the next academic year. 

“We want to be able to put one little piece of anxiety to rest for families,” Desideri said. “The family being together is a high value. Closure ceremonies for certain schools, respecting the land and the history”

One of the last items on the agenda regarding school consolidation was Medina’s request to keep Elsie Allen High School as a comprehensive high school for another academic year. 

“The issue that's been brought up that we cant ignore, the 30 years of history that exists of how the community perceives Elsie Allen,” Medina said. “This idea of eliminating the map of the school is setting up that school for failure.”

In early March, the school board announced Elsie Allen High School principal Gabe Albavera was put on paid leave after a stabbing incident happened on campus. 

The Press Democrat reports Albavera was off-campus the day after the stabbing, and the parent of the 15-year-old victim criticized Elsie Allen administrators for not notifying the family that he needed emergency surgery at Memorial Hospital. 

The night before this week’s board meeting, there was a meeting with the Elsie Allen campus community to address Albarvera’s removal, Medina said. 

“Instead of keeping us where we’re at, you’re pushing us down, you’re squashing us down.” Medina said. “Even further, making it more difficult. Making that mountain higher to reach. That’s what it feels like. And that’s what the kids are feeling right now. That’s what these families are feeling. You’re doing that right now. And on top of that, you take their principal.”

This isn’t the only principal that’s been removed in the district. Maria Carrillo’s principal, Amy Weise, was told she would not be returning for the next academic year. 

According to a Maria Carrillo Instagram post, students and staff are planning protests at the district office on Friday morning.