‘HARD DECISIONS’
Pandemic-related space crunch spells end for equestrian site
A horse boarding stable and associated riding academy are being cleared off the grounds of San Domenico School in San Anselmo tomake way for coronavirus-related needs of students, faculty and staff.
The school administration is replacing the center’s outdoor arena with a guest parking lot. That will offset the loss of the existing guest parking lot, which is being repurposed to house four additional portable classrooms, said Cecily Stock, the top administrator.
Additional classrooms are to allow for smaller class sizes and more social distancing as the private independent school begins to reopen — like many other Marin private, public and parochial schools — for in-person classroom instruction.
“The pandemic has forced many hard decisions,” Stock said in a letter to the school community Oct. 7. “While the news may come as a surprise to you, all of our choices come after much study and reflection.”
“With the unknowns and knowns of COVID-19, our highest priority has to be student and teacher safety,” Stock said. “That is driving everything we do, followed of course by our commitment to providing an exceptional program.”
Patrick Seaton, owner of Patrick Seaton Stables LLC, said he has already moved horses and his training operation to a newsite atOpus Sporthorses in Cotati.
The riding academy, which has nine other horses, will continue to offer lessons and classes at San Domenico through Dec. 31.
“We will greatly miss riding at San Domenico — it’s a pretty astounding place,” said Seaton, who has leased the space at the San Anselmo school for the last six years. “It’s one of those places that everyone you talk to has been touched by it at one time or another.”
Seaton said he is looking for a new location for the academy, preferably in Marin County.
“I guess with COVID there are a lot of changes,” he said. “It’s unfortunate they couldn’t find another spot to use on the 400 acres. But it’s been a great six years — it’s a beautiful campus.”
The stables decision comes as many Marin public and private schools in recent weeks are trying to find ways to move from all distance learning — which many have been doing since March — to some type of hybrid combination of inperson learning on campus and distance learning.
In mid-September, Marin County moved into the “red,” or tier 2, state virus system status level, which allowed for all schools to reopen in person on campus after a two-week stabilization period.
So far, close to half of Marin elementary schools and middle schools and a few private high schools have reopened for in- classroom learning in a hybrid mode. All Marin public high schools have said they are waiting until January to launch hybrid in classroom re opening plans.
At San Domenico, Seaton said Stock notified him of the changes in June, giving him 90 days notice to leave. Stock said part of the decision was based on a low participation rate at the riding academy by San Domenico students. Other riding students come to the San Domenico riding facility from around Marin and the Bay Area.
“Over the past five years, very few current SD students have participated in the riding program,” Stock said inher letter. “Last year, for example, just seven kids out of 675 students rode at the stables, and two of those students relocated out of the Bay Area this year, which left just five returning SD riders.”
“With so few SD students participating in the riding program, and so many other athletic and program needs, our facilities committee and board of trustees will be looking at the most productive use for this space on campus over the longer term,” Stock said.
Long-term plans for the riding center space have not yet been determined, she said.
Parents in the San Domenico community said they were surprised to hear about the changes on Oct. 7, a day before the demolition of the outdoor riding arena began.
“The stables are a unique and valued asset— one that seemed to underscore SD’s vast natural resources and set SD apart fromother independent schools in the area,” kindergarten parents said in an Oct. 8 letter sent to the rest of the school community. “For some of us, it may even have factored into our choice to join the SD community, as it fits sowell into the school values of community building and care of the natural world.”
They said they wish that the entire community had been invited to participate in the discussions before the decision had already been made.
“We are sure that everyone in the community greatly appreciates the amazing efforts the school has made and continues to make to keep everyone safe during this difficult time,” the parents’ letter said. “But it also seems a true sadness to lose this important asset to solve a temporary parking problem. And certainly any decision to turn natural space into pavement is something that many in the community may wish to have the opportunity to participate in.”
The decision to remove the stables is the second major facilities change at San Domenico related to the pandemic. In the summer, the school confirmed that it had asked its resident nuns to leave their lodging so that their building could be used for a coronavirus infirmary.
“There are somany ways in which this uncharted time is challenging our SD community, our neighbors, friends, country and world and there’s just no getting around how hard it is for so many of us,” Stock said in her letter. “We are absolutely doing our best to keep all constituents’ well being in mind as we move through this difficult time.”