4 in 10 Sonoma County high school students are failing, educators searching for solutions before it’s too late

Nearly 4 in 10 high school students in Sonoma County have one or more failing grades and more than 7 in 10 say they feel deep anxiety about the future, a one-two punch that prompted educators across the county to convene an unprecedented meeting Tuesday to find the root of the problem and correct it before the graduation prospects of thousands of students are imperiled.

About 120 teachers, counselors, principals and superintendents met for approximately four hours Tuesday morning to address a worrying spike in both failing grades and mental health issues among secondary students.

“We talked a lot about the impact of these first six weeks, how difficult it was for some students to transition to distance learning based on their home situation, their internet connection, whether they were evacuated,” Windsor High teacher Pete Stefanisko said after the meeting. “The emotional stuff came up over and over again.”

With four straight years of calamities — wildfires, power shut-offs, a flood and a global pandemic — Sonoma County students stood apart in a recent national YouthTruth survey which asked about barriers to distance learning. More than 70% of the more than 4,500 local high school students who answered reported that “feeling anxious about the future” was the No. 1 impediment.

And the fallout, at least partially, is showing up in first-quarter and progress report grades.

Data from the county’s 10 public high school districts revealed that 37% of students have one or more failing grades, up from 27% this time last year. Among freshmen, the rates have spiked from 27% a year ago to 40% this year. Failing grades among sophomores have climbed from 31% a year ago to 40% currently; among juniors it was 27% last fall and 37% today; and 31% of seniors have at least one F, up from 23% a year ago.

The trend is even starker among the county’s Latino population, attendees said, though the Sonoma County Office of Education did not release those figures Tuesday.

“Our Latinx community is seeming to be significantly more impacted than other students, so that is obviously concerning,” Windsor Unified Superintendent Jeremy Decker said in a media briefing following the summit, which was convened by the Sonoma County Office of Education.

In a video presented at the summit, Windsor High senior Maylete Alberto Cisneros said demands on many students at home while they try to handle distance learning are too great to ignore.

“We have to babysit or we have to take care of our responsibilities at home but we also have responsibilities at school and we want to do good,” she said. “But it just stresses us out because we can’t find time to do everything all at once.”

Decker credited those students who spoke out and said their willingness to share their struggles points to the depth of the problem.

“A lot of students wanted their names shared, wanted us to know who they were and that they are struggling. I think that speaks volumes to what is going on,” he said. “Students may not feel seen through Zoom. It seems like our kids really want to be seen right now.”

For Healdsburg High senior Fiona Affronti, tuning in to a Zoom class can seem almost pointless some days.

“Distance learning is especially hard on days when there is a headline news article that’s something that I disagree with or something that really hurts, or you get that amber alert on your phone saying ’You are on evacuation warning, get ready to pack your bag,’ ” she said in a recorded interview. “What’s the point? Why does this matter in the grand scheme of things when my house may not be here tomorrow, when my grandma is now at risk because she has to go to the Petaluma Fairgrounds or something to evacuate and you can’t keep 6 feet of distance there.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down local schools in mid-March, students in Sonoma County have been prevented from any form of in-person learning. Only three private schools have been granted waivers to resume modified in-class instruction in recent weeks, but those waivers are restricted to transitional kindergarten through sixth grade classes.

Before Tuesday’s meeting, county Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase acknowledged the mental health ramifications linked to Sonoma County’s inability to advance out of the most restrictive of the state’s COVID-19 tiers, a reflection of the widespread nature of the virus locally.

“These are the other consequences of COVID shutdowns,” Mase said Monday. “It’s not only in the school system or secondary students. We are seeing it in residential care facilities, skilled nursing homes, among our workforce, among people we know are still sheltering in place — all age groups.”

Montgomery High School math teacher Jim LaFrance participated in the meeting Tuesday and said many students who might not necessarily fit the definition of struggling academically are struggling nonetheless.

“A lot of my office hour time is a lot of talking to them and checking with them emotionally as much as it is with helping them with math,” he said.

Among the 10 secondary district participants, there were positive outliers who have found success with students so far.

At Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, the percentage of students with one or more failing grades has declined 13% when compared to fall of 2019, principal Louis Ganzler said.

Cotati-Rohnert Park Superintendent Mayra Perez credited Ganzler’s early implementation of a schedule that has students in three classes five days a week, rather than rotating between six subjects.

Instead of 150 students on a teachers’ roster for the semester, there are 75. That means more time between students and teachers, Perez said.

“I think it’s kind of a concentrated education,” she said. “It’s really focused and there is opportunity for support.”

The school day includes an extra mandatory class for students classified as English language learners, Perez said.

But even with success, Perez acknowledged the level of anxiety apparent in all members of the community — students, teachers, administrators, staff and parents.

"We need to be cognizant of the fact that it’s a very different type of work. It’s very demanding,“ she said. ”The reality is that people are very stressed.“

The next all-county summit is scheduled for Nov. 5, according to SCOE officials.

Santa Rosa City Schools officials who attended the meeting are slated to meet Wednesday to talk about strategy, Superintendent Diann Kitamura said.

“What was hugely important for the superintendents is this is not something that is going to come from the top down,” she said. “This is to do with teachers, with parents and with students — not to them.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.