Gov. Newsom visits Santa Rosa school, calls for campuses to reopen fully by fall

Gov. Gavin Newsom visited a Santa Rosa elementary school on Wednesday and called on school districts statewide to plan for a full return to in-person instruction by the fall while also highlighting the partial campus reopenings that have already brought students back to classrooms across most of California.

“We must prepare now for full in-person instruction come this next school year,” he said. “That’s foundational and that’s principal.”

Newsom made his remarks at a podium near the playgrounds on the Sheppard Accelerated Elementary School campus in Roseland, where he touted the school as an example of the momentum behind reopening classrooms and pledged state help for that push. Legislators tapped up to $6.6 billion in a bill that cleared the governor’s desk last month and that money is being rushed to districts to help reopening, he said.

It reflects the extra support that California’s educators have said that they needed to return to in-person learning and to care for students’ academic, social and mental health needs, Newsom said.

“Money is not an object now. It’s an excuse,” he said. “That resourceful mindset is needed at this moment. It is alive and well here at this school. You walk around and see that resourcefulness. Folks who are committed, not interested, in getting their kids safely back and in in-person instruction.”

Newsom was introduced by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Rogers and Janice Siebert, president of the Roseland Public Schools Board of Trustees. The funding he pledged comes through Assembly Bill 86.

By the end of March, Newsom said, over 9,000 of the state’s 11,000 school districts had either reopened or announced their plans to do so. That includes most elementary schools in Sonoma County. A handful have already planned to transition from a mix of remote- and campus-based classes to full in-person learning before the current school year ends.

High schools, too, have brought students back for in-person instruction, and Cardinal Newman High School, a private school in Santa Rosa, switched from hybrid to full on-campus learning this week. Santa Rosa City Schools, Sonoma County’s largest district, plans to bring back its first group of high school students on April 26.

Newsom celebrated the benchmarks that have been passed in school reopening while acknowledging that some communities are taking a slower approach because of varying circumstances.

“I want to challenge those districts, but I also want to support them,” he said. “I’m mindful of the stresses that they’re under. That’s why we put up the money.”

Sonoma County schools are set to receive $66.2 million through AB 86, according to the Sonoma County Office of Education. The bill offers an incentive for school districts to reopen sooner rather than later, however, because they run the risk of losing some of their allotted funding if they drag their feet.

While outlining his expectation that school districts strive for full in-person instruction by this fall, Newsom also challenged districts to “reimagine the school year” as they seek ways to recapture time lost with students.

“Extend the school day, extend the school year,” he said. “Who says you have to end on June 1 or June 15?”

Still, educators and district administrators work across an uneven landscape shaped by longstanding socioeconomic disparities and wide-ranging opinions among families and staff about the push to bring students back full time amid a pandemic that still dominates daily life.

In Sonoma County, some parents feel their schools haven’t offered enough on-campus learning time, while other community members stress caution and state that they prefer online-based learning at this time.

Stephanie Manieri, a Santa Rosa City Schools trustee who represents an area that includes Roseland, said she found Newsom’s location of choice to advocate for broader reopening “appalling,” given what she described as the “physical, psychological (and) emotional trauma that families are experiencing that needs to be acknowledged and treated with compassion and empathy.”

“I have heard from many Latinx parents that the option to remain in distance learning has been a positive experience, and they are happy to have options that allow them to make the safest choice for their families,” she wrote in an email to The Press Democrat Wednesday. She pointed out that COVID-19 transmission rate within the ZIP code encompassing Roseland, a predominantly Latino area of the city, is much higher than the county and state, with a persistently low rate of fully and partially vaccinated people.

“Our families have real, valid concerns and reasons for remaining in distance learning until the fall of 2021,” Manieri said. “We need to acknowledge that this is a time of opportunity for schools and districts to redesign school for our children most affected by marginalization, and understand that the erasure of these experiences is rooted in white supremacy.”

A number of Sonoma County families, though, are pressing for their school districts to keep students on campus for more hours of the week. Parents in the Piner-Olivet Union School District, for example, are unhappy with the staggered timeline the district has set for reopening, and parent Sheila Walker said in an email that others are looking into legal actions to compel school boards to reopen more fully.

Newsom was unequivocal in his assessment that waiting to reopen will cause more harm than good.

“The consequences of delay are profound, especially for our diverse communities,” he said.

After his remarks, Newsom also fielded questions about other topics, including the allegations of sexual assault against Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli, who is defying calls that he resign from office while authorities claims made against him.

Earlier this week the California Attorney General’s Office took over the criminal investigation into Foppoli’s alleged misconduct. Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch had recused her office due to a conflict of interest — Windsor Councilwoman Esther Lemus, one of the six women who has come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by the mayor, is a Sonoma County deputy district attorney.

Newsom said he’d not heard about the allegations or the scandal engulfing Windsor, where he visited in 2019 and met with Foppoli and other local officials amid the Kincade fire.

“I literally know nothing about it, and I don’t say that lightly,” he said. “First I’ve heard of it.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.