Petaluma's Oldest School Takes Bold Step into Future with New Charter

Faced with ongoing budget cuts that threatened to close the library and eliminate funding for new technology, teachers and administrators at last spring decided they’d had enough.

The school’s per pupil allowance from the state had been drastically reduced, shrinking from $6,000 per student in 2008 to just $4,800 this year. That’s a big deal because the one school district has only 175 students, many of them poor. A parent association that had been active in the past had withered, leaving the West Side school grasping for options.

“We said to ourselves, ‘How do we go forward and how do we keep Cinnabar open and viable?’” said Deborah Waggoner, a second and third grade teacher who was part of the team that created the charter. “We had to start thinking about alternatives.”

Cinnabar Elementary is as old as the city of Petaluma, founded in 1858 and is the second oldest school in the entire county, according to Interim Superintendent Stephen Collins.

Now, with deepening cuts and high instability about funding sources from the state, the school is serious about redefining itself as a learning center that focuses on technology, writing and English Language Learners, who make up about half of the school’s population. 

“Being a charter allows us more flexibility in the day to day operations,” Collins said. “Whether it’s textbook funds or staff development funds, we can shift that money around as we need it.”

For example, in a charter school, teachers can create an independent study plan even for students who will be gone just one day versus at least five in regular schools, which means the school does not lose out on funding even though the child is not there.

Another plus is the double funding charters get for students who live out of the district, due to a quirk in the law. (In other words, the school gets money from both its own district and the other district.) That’s one population the school plans to target in the coming years through ads and other outreach in the community in order to grow its student body.

Already the conversion to charter is paying off, with the school receiving an additional $50,000 this year that allowed the school to save its library, which was at risk of being permanently shuttered and buying new computers.

Teachers and administrators admit that the school is still figuring out how it will use its new charter status. Later this month, permanent Superintendent Chuck Bush takes over the helm of the district, and staff say they are looking forward to working with him to create a new plan for the school.

“It’s like having a new baby,” said Waggoner, who has taught at Cinnabar for 22 years. “We are not sure what’s going to happen, but we’re really excited about it.”