Back to school: Even educators who lost homes ready to teach
Principal Teresa Ruffoni greeted students at Crane Elementary School in Rohnert Park on Monday morning, their first day back in class after a series of deadly fires burned through thousands of homes in neighboring Santa Rosa and in other cities and towns across the region.
What Ruffoni didn’t tell the children was that a week earlier she had grabbed a few of her most vital belongings and fled from flames that would soon consume her home in Hidden Valley Estates, a hardhit subdivision in the hills of northern Santa Rosa.
She was too focused on the students, and navigating an extraordinary period for education in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties.
“Our kids need this. They really do,” Ruffoni said. “They really need a place to learn.”
The Wine Country fires displaced thousands of fami-
lies, some of whom still don’t know if their homes survived, and shut down schools in all three counties.
Now, as schools in places like Rohnert Park and Petaluma begin to reopen, administrators not only are concerned about the emotional health of students but also are preparing for changes, including possible jumps in enrollment if parents decide to send their children to schools closer to their temporary housing — including emergency shelters.
Nearly 600 schools, serving 260,000 students across Northern California, closed last week because of fire danger, smoke or evacuations, state officials said. Some of the schools were themselves used as shelters.
Many parents, meanwhile, fled the North Bay entirely to get away from the heavy smoke, staying with family or friends or at hotels.
Amid the chaos and uncertainty, district administrators and teachers have been scrambling to get schools back open, knowing it was a critical step to bring a sense of security and normalcy to children traumatized by the destruction.
That’s why on Friday, Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified Superintendent Robert Haley gathered the entire district staff in a school gym.
“Do you want to try and reopen Monday?” he asked. The answer, he said, was a solid yes. “I looked up, and front and center was a teacher with a smile on her face,” he said. “Her house burned down, but she was ready to help her colleagues get kids back in school.”
Ruffoni, despite possessing only a hodgepodge of mismatched clothes grabbed in the dark of night, was ready to go, too.
It felt like the right thing to do, Haley said, to help the whole county move forward.
“For many of our students, the place they feel safest other than at home is school,” Haley said. “The adults they trust more than anyone other than their parents are their teachers. That’s why we’re here today.”
The small district south of Santa Rosa was among the first in Sonoma County to reopen in the wake of the most damaging week of fires in modern state history. Districts, including those that serve Petaluma, Sebastopol and Healdsburg, planned to open Tuesday, while Windsor and Cloverdale hoped to welcome students back Wednesday, as did Napa Valley Unified and St. Helena Unified in Napa County.
The big districts in areas most devastated
by the fires, such as Santa Rosa, the city of Sonoma and Calistoga, were not expected to open for at least another week. Administrators in a number of districts are still evaluating schools to make sure they are safe and ready for students — testing alarm systems, checking electricity and, in Santa Rosa, deep-cleaning classrooms to clear the smell of smoke.
One school in that district, Hidden Valley Satellite, located just blocks from Teresa Ruffoni’s house, was destroyed. Students there were expected to transfer to Hidden Valley Elementary, which is close by but was spared, officials said.
A smaller system in Santa Rosa, the Wright Elementary School District, announced plans to open Wednesday. That will be a relief, said Saba Semere, the mother of three elementary-age students there.
Her children — Abel, Lulia and Yonathan — have been passing time playing cards and video games and watching movies with family members who have been staying with them after losing their homes in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood. The heavy smoke has cut off most outdoor activities.
The kids said they were ready for the end of their unexpected vacation. “I’m really looking forward to it,” said Abel, a fourth-grader, of Wednesday’s expected return.
For students at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, not only when but where they will attend class remains up in the air. The private school was partially destroyed, and administrators said they will meet this week to discuss their options, including temporarily holding classes at a different location or possibly online.
In Petaluma, where schools were closed all last week as shelters opened across the city, Monday was a teacher work day. District officials said they would welcome students back Tuesday, including any new children displaced from elsewhere by the fire.
Superintendent Gary Callahan wasn’t sure how many fire families would need a new school, but said they were all welcome.
“We’ll take them,” he said, adding that the district would provide mental health services and other support if needed. “Our folks are super ready to work with kids and families.”
School leaders across the region said they expected some displaced families to enroll in new schools, depending on where they find housing. The typical registration process, requiring proof of residence and other documentation, would be waived to get students into class as quickly as possible, officials said.
In Rohnert Park, Ruffoni said many of her students had family affected by the disaster, including one scared little girl who didn’t want to come to school Monday. So the principal booked a magician, who performed at a school-wide assembly first thing in the morning.
“We started our day laughing and having fun and all together,” she said.
“For many of our students, the place they feel safest other than at home is school.” Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified Superintendent Robert Haley