NEW CHARTER SCHOOL APPROVED FOR HOPLAND
Faced with budget cuts and declining enrollment, the Ukiah Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to close Hopland and Redwood Valley Elementary Schools in June of 2010.
Students living in Hopland faced a two-plus-hour bus ride each day for the years to come being transported back and forth to Ukiah and, although preschoolers at the site were offered bus service to Oak Manor where elementary students from Hopland would go, it would be the parents’ responsibility to get their children home.
On January 20th, the UUSD Board approved, by a vote of 6-1, the application—a comprehensive, detailed, 169-page document—for the Shanél (Sanel) Valley Academy Charter
School—transitional kindergarten through 6th grade—with the stipulation that the requested academic program for 7th and 8th grades be held in abeyance pending further developmental clarification for the upper grade program.
Currently finalizing the details of a lease at the old Hopland School site and accepting applications for teachers and student enrollment, an intrepid group of Hopland residents led by SVA Board President Amy Frost—leslie Barkley, Sony Elliott, Car Mun Kok, Melea Meyer and Kristian Vallée—are now well on the way to bringing the children back home to their community.
Over the past 10 years, Hopland students have been bussed to Ukiah and, although the district allows for parental school choice, the district only provides
transportation to Oak Manor; for alternative elementary placements, parents must drive their children back and forth to school.
“Sometimes the buses were too full and our kids were getting left behind at Pomolita and the high school. We hired drivers and used our own vans to pick them up, sometimes making two trips a day, one for the elementary students and one for the older kids. There are days when they don’t get home to the reservation until 4:30 or 5:00 p.m.,” says Sony Elliott, Tribal Chairman for the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians.
At its peak, Hopland served about 250 students but prior to closure they were down to a little over 100 with a consistent Native population of about 1820 per cent.
“We were definitely in a period
of declining enrollment,” says UUSD retired teacher Leslie Barkley who taught at Hopland for 16 years and whose children attended the school.
“We’ve been motivated by the fact that these children are not being given equitable access to education; for 10 years they’ve been spending 2 ½ to 3 hours a day riding a bus,” says Board President Amy Frost whose background includes marketing, technology and innovation,
“It’s incredibly important that they be brought back to their community to attend their local school where they know their neighbors.”
Hopland School had previously been central to the community—a gathering place for festivities, where information was disseminated and where tribal meetings were held.
Tribal Chairman Elliott explains that Shanél, the principal indigenous village—the central gathering place for the Shóqowa and Hopland People in the Sanel Valley—translates to “of the roundhouse.”
“If you come from Hopland and go down the straightaway towards Old Hopland, you cross over the white bridge. Between that bridge and Doolan Creek, before you get to Old Hopland, was where our main village of Shanél was located. There were five roundhouses there and all the villages up and down the river would come here for dances and ceremonies.”
Recent demographics indicate that there are over 120 students attending UUSD schools who reside in Hopland and about 100 others who attend charter and private schools in Ukiah or in Sonoma County.
A unique nature of a charter school is that it has the ability to accept students not only in the local community but from families whose parents work in Hopland and who commute from Ukiah or Sonoma County.
As a charter school, SVA is a free public school open to any family, any student, with no admission requirements and no entrance exams, operating under an independent contract authorized by UUSD with admissions similar to any school within the district.
Their charter application to UUSD states: “The Charter School shall admit all students who wish to attend the Charter School, unless the Charter School receives a greater number of applications than there are spaces for students in which case it will hold a public random drawing to determine admission.”
The curriculum is STEAM based, an educational approach that uses science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue and critical thinking with project-based individual learning plans.
It will include hands-on and inquiry-based study with a highly innovative curriculum that will be inclusive towards Native students with the integration of the study of the Central Pomo language and Native culture and history.
“The implementation of a culturally responsive, inclusive, and restorative curriculum will contribute to a more resilient and connected community,” says Dr. Car Mun Kok whose expertise includes STEM education.
Their educational model is inspired by the community
school model where children learn in school and also access the gifts that community members have to offer including agricultural and technological innovations that are available locally.
Adult to student ratio will be 12 to 1 with each classroom having a teacher and para professional in a room of approximately 24 students.
“We want to build a collaborative and innovative team,” says Malea Meyer whose educational expertise is both broad and deep. “I know the power of a small community school and what it can do; to be working as part of a team to open a small school here in Hopland is a dream come true.”
Barkley concurs about it being a dream come true for her as well and remembers working with the small staff at Hopland that allowed for efficient and productive collaboration, integrating innovative programs and approaches that would have been prohibitive to implement in a larger school.
“We’re looking to hire educators who want to create curriculum, those with a passion for what they want to teach,” says Board Treasurer Kristian Vallée, a retired middle school teacher turned accountant, who is eager to be part of an innovative educational approach.
With support from 90 interested families, 7 credentialed teachers interested in applying, 20-plus letters from community members and neighbors, $250,000 in community pledges and in partnership with the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and the Hopland Research and Extension Center, the project is in full swing.
In 2007, after the destructive Hopland flood of 2005, the interior of the school was redone and the school was occupied for only three years until its closure in 2010. Classrooms and bathrooms remain in excellent condition and facility improvements are focused on installing new HVAC units, reroofing, solar installation and meeting ADA building code requirements.
Administration, support staff and teachers will be hired, curriculum design will be developed, and classrooms will be opened on September 7th to welcome their projected student population of 160.
Elliott says this is long overdue for local students and families.
“The three hours on the bus is a big deal; this will allow our kids to be integrated back into our community, collaborating and working together.”
Frost explains that her grandmother, Pat Ashurst, who was her kindergarten teacher, taught at the Hopland School for 29 years.
“When I moved back here after college it was the first year that the school was closed and to live here without that community connection was disheartening for me.
“I set out on this mission two years ago to find the right key players to help this all come together. I want to restore that feeling, that learning center for kids and families. It’s an essential piece.
“I have no expertise in education but I have a passion for this little town; I’m just a person who wants to make this happen.”
“The implementation of a culturally responsive, inclusive, and restorative curriculum will contribute to a more resilient and connected community.”
— Dr. Car Mun Kok