Superintendent Chuck Young on our schools and the 2017 firestorm

Our schools and the 2017 firestorm, by Superintendent Chuck Young|

In early morning hours of Monday, Oct. 9, the lights were all on at Sonoma Valley High School long before dawn and long before the school bell would normally ring. Of course on this fateful day there would be no school bell, and there would be no classes.

With near simultaneous firestorms breaking out across the wine country, including Sonoma Valley, Santa Rosa, Napa and Calistoga, the disaster response was already underway, as were preparations for the Sonoma Valley Unified School District to be thrust into a critical role on behalf of the local community.

Newly minted Sonoma Valley City Manager Cathy Capriola remembers a blur of calls, texts, and urgent meetings taking place in rapid succession. She says there was one thing she’ll never forget: “Each time I reached someone from the School District the answer was always the same. ‘OK , We’ll make that happen’. There was no pause, no pushback.”

First school buses were sent on an urgent mission to evacuate more than 100 medically fragile residents of the Sonoma Developmental Center. First they headed to Altamira Middle School, then due to power outages diverted to Adele Harrison Middle School, where they were cared for with great success.

Next the high school was identified at the best location for a central primary shelter for local residents forced out of their homes by the raging wind-shipped flames. Normally the Red Cross or County Emergency Services would have staffed and operated the shelter. This time, they were more than overwhelmed by the destruction in Santa Rosa, so the School District Staff was instantly in charge of what would eventually be an 8 day long, 24 hour a day effort, that has been deemed by all to be an incredible display of teamwork and adaptive management capacity.

High School Principal Kathleen Hawing was in Los Angeles when the fire broke out but was back in Sonoma before sunset. She began making calls to the high school, also texting staff members and department chairpersons as I raced for the airport.

It quickly became clear overnight services would be needed, including cots, bedding, meals, medical support, and volunteers. Hawing and her assistant, Danielle Contreras, along with Director of Human Services Loyal Carlon and Assistant Superintendent Karen Strong began organizing their own 8-12 hours shifts, planning to sleep in the school office as long as was needed.

All together 617 people checked in at the shelter and as many as 300 people slept at the high school some nights, with cots set up in the main gym, Golton Hall and the library. The Pavilion, medical office, main office and other areas were all utilized. Three meals a day were arranged, with gusto, by local chefs and community volunteers, and many teachers jumped into service with movies, music art and more to help comfort the evacuees.

Stepping up to serve the community meant that many in our school district personnel had to set aside their own concerns and fears about their homes, property, families, and overall well-being.

In reflecting on this experience, I have to say that while our schools are designed to teach our children many important academic and life skills, we ultimately hope our students will learn to do the right thing at the right time as they move into adulthood. There is no textbook lesson for the firestorm experience, but clearly, our local public schools have just taught us all a remarkable a lesson in public service, carried out in in an extraordinarily dedicated, creative, resilient manner.

My thanks go out to all those staff members, students, family members and community residents who made this possible. It is mainly those same people who have worked so hard to make our transition back to our normal task, educating the youth of Sonoma Valley, so successful and seamless. Thanks again for that difficult accomplishment.

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