Before I offer my thoughts about the potential relocation of Flowery School, I want to share the background behind my viewpoint.
In 1999, I worked for Creative Publications traveling up and down the west coast providing math professional development to elementary teachers. On my days off, I substitute taught in Sonoma to help me decide where to send my 4 year old son to kindergarten. I worked at all the schools. Although the dual immersion program was very new there, Flowery was the school that stood out. There were 2 dual immersion kindergarten classes and 2 first grades and a strong feeling of community. As a parent educator, I felt compelled to get more information about the program and talked with multiple people including Principal Michael Babb, Title VII Coordinator Kathleen Hawing, teachers, and parents of dual immersion students. Ultimately, I enrolled my son followed by my daughter two years later. My institutional knowledge of Flowery started with that initial research, followed by my experience as a parent volunteer, serving on Site Council, co-founding the Dual Immersion Advocates parent group, working as a district Math Consultant beginning in 2002, co-writing the FLAP grant with Principal Joyce Schipper in 2006, and working as Dual Immersion Coordinator in 2007 till taking on my present role as Flowery Academic Specialist.
To provide effective leadership of Flowery, you need to know how the dual immersion program started. Sonoma Charter School opened in 1993. In the subsequent years, Flowery School was impacted by what some referred to as “white flight” due to families switching to Charter. Flowery personnel knew they had two critical elements in their favor for launching a dual immersion program. They had a population of Spanish language role models who would greatly benefit from dual immersion as well as the perfect location to serve those families. They applied for a Title VII grant, and before long, Flowery was awarded $1,000,000…