Effort underway to reopen Forestville’s El Molino High School, consolidate west county school districts

An effort to reopen Forestville’s El Molino High School and unite it with other west Sonoma County school districts is in full swing as residents say the move can reduce costs and improve education.

Currently, the lower Russian River region is served by six elementary school districts, while Sebastopol is served by four elementary school districts. The entire west county area is served by the West Sonoma County Union High School District, which includes Laguna High School in Forestville and Analy High School in Sebastopol. That makes 11 school districts in all.

Since El Molino High closed in 2021, all high school students throughout west Sonoma County attend Analy.

It’s a sticking point for many in west county, including Kimberly Lambert, an El Molino alumna and former Guerneville School District trustee.

“I feel like our kids weren’t considered when they closed El Molino,” Lambert said of the decision by the West Sonoma County Union High School District board.

The effort she’s leading comes in the wake of a 2022 county office of education study that includes one option in which the 11 school districts would be consolidated into two.

The 2021 El Molino closure occurred as a result of declining enrollment and budgetary constraints that ballooned after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lambert, who is leading the effort to bring El Molino back as part of some sort of consolidated district, said her ideal scenario would reduce administrative overhead and allow for more money to be poured into hiring quality teachers.

“I have always fought for cutting costs. Why are we paying for the same services?” she said of the 11 separate school systems.

Two potential districts

Lambert’s effort potentially dovetails with the unification study started by the Sonoma County Office of Education a year after El Molino closed.

The focus of the study was to confront dwindling funds within the 11 districts serving roughly 6,000 west county students, each with its own board, superintendent and administration, according to Eric Wittmershaus, director of communications with the county education office.

“After the study was done, it fell by the wayside a bit,” Wittmershaus said.

When Amie Carter became county education superintendent in 2023, Lambert and other community members approached.

“They were interested in re-opening El Molino,” Wittmershaus said.

While the study posits three scenarios to confront budgetary issues and declining enrollment, one scenario stuck out to Lambert. It called for creating two unified districts — a Russian River Unified District and a West Sonoma County Unified School District — and would reduce how much administration would be needed for the schools.

For the Russian River Unified District, which would include Monte Rio, Oak Grove, Fort Ross, Montgomery, Guerneville and Forestville school districts and a re-opened El Molino High School, the study estimates that consolidating administrative and staff costs and services would save those seven school districts and the high school between $3 million and $5 million a year. Consolidating, however, would likely result in $1.7 million in revenue losses. Additionally, the estimate did not include the cost of reopening El Molino.

For the West Sonoma County Unified School District, which would include Analy, plus Gravenstein, Sebastopol, Harmony and Twin Hills school districts, administrative and staff cost savings could range between $4 million and $6 million. However, the Sebastopol-area districts could lose around $4.2 million in revenue.

The revenue loss is a result of how state funding would essentially shake out by combining the districts, Wittmershaus explained.

“Generally speaking, it’s related to ... the state’s Local Control Funding Formula and what can happen when you combine districts with different property tax, state funding and student demographic situations,” Wittmershaus said in an email.

Although both possible districts are slated to lose money, Lambert said her goal is to keep all current schools open.

“Note that there would not be any school closures as part of this initiative,” Lambert wrote in a petition letter to west Sonoma County residents.

Lambert hopes to have a measure for unification of the new district on the ballot by March 2025,. But before that can happen, Wittmershaus said the proposal will undergo a formal study commissioned by the county office of education.

Sonoma County’s Committee on School District Organization, a panel of elected school district trustees, would then host a series of public meetings in the lower Russian River, seeking input geared to its decision.

The soonest that would happen is early next year, Wittmershaus said.

If the Committee on School District Organization approves of the unification it would forward its recommendation to the California Board of Education, which would likely conduct additional hearings before voting to approve or disapprove.

Only after the California Board of Education approves the unification can an election be scheduled, Wittmershaus said.

Editor’s note: This story has been revised to note that Sonoma County’s Committee on School District Organization is the local body that will decide whether or not to recommend unification to the state Board of Education, a required step before any public vote. An earlier version of this story misstated the role of the Sonoma County Office of Education.

Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at amie.windsor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5218.