Fahrenheit SVHS: High School ?backpedals on Honors English

English Department recommendation due in three weeks.|

Parents packed Tuesday night’s Sonoma Valley Unified School District board meeting to vent their frustrations about Sonoma Valley High School’s decision to eliminate Honors English classes for 11th and 12th graders.

When SVHS Principal Kathleen Hawing announced the decision back in January, it was met with anger and protests by some parents and students.

Currently, the district offers College Prep English and Honors English for freshmen and sophomores, and CP English, Honors English and Advanced Placement English for juniors and seniors.

The decision precipitated meetings, meetings and more meetings.

On Tuesday, Sonoma Valley Unified School District Superintendent Chuck Young told the parents the decision to cut Honors English was “an interim decision that’s not going forward.”

“We have not made a decision,” he said. “But we will make it as quickly as we can.”

Karen Strong, the district’s assistant superintendent for Instruction and Curriculum, called the decision a “lack of due process,” and said administrators have “walked back the decision.”

She also pointed out that English is a four-year graduation requirement and every student has to take English.

Since a parents meeting on Jan. 23, there have been numerous smaller meetings on the topic of the English classes. The English Department volunteered to look into it and make a recommendation within three weeks.

“We’ll have a final decision before spring break,” Strong said. “We’ll bring the recommendation to the board at its March meeting.”

She said the English Department isn’t working with any parameters.

“It’s like the physicians oath, ‘do no harm,’” she said. “We’ll see what the English Department can come back with in three weeks. And we trust that the educators will come back with a solution.”

Superintendent Young tried to assure the parents.

“We take this very seriously,” he said. “We want to repair the process.”

And he said that oftentimes, good policy comes out of making bad decisions.

More than a dozen parents commented on the proposal. More than a few said that after hearing from Young and Strong and the board, they were tempering the remarks they had originally planned to deliver. But they were in favor of reinstating Honors English into the curriculum.

Sarah Ford, whose daughter graduated last June, urged the board to keep Honors English, and promised that her daughter would be writing the board a letter of support also.

Jennifer Saldana, another parent, said she was glad to hear that the teachers are being included in the decision.

Boardmember John Kelly said he’s getting dozens of calls a day, and had 17 alone last Friday. “But it’s a staff decision,” he said. “The decision is not the board’s place.”

Board President Britta Johnson called it “a difficult process.”

“I’m glad to hear we’re slowing it down and righting the situation,” she said. “This blindsided me.”

Boardmembers Sal Chavez and Dan Gustafson echoed Johnson.

“We’re not curriculum experts,” Chavez said.

Gustafson too said he was glad to see the English Department step up. “They’re the educators,” he said. “This is real positive.”

Email Bill at bill.hoban@sonomanews.com.

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