Committee issues ranked list of sites for possible closures as community urges board to keep all high schools open

The Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education heard a presentation and public testimony Feb. 5 on recommendations from a citizen-led school consolidation and closure advisory committee that ranked district campuses as possible candidates for closure and outlined alternative scenarios, including a 7–12 reconfiguration and program-based options.

The committee, chaired by Ben Wolf, issued rankings across the district’s high schools, middle schools and elementary schools and described a multi-step scoring process facilitated by School Services of California. Wolf said the committee’s work — which began in August and included nine meetings and roughly 20 active members — produced a two-column ranking (an equal-weight “yes/no” score and higher-resolution tie-breaker ranks) that the committee used as the starting point for deliberations. “Our purpose tonight really is to summarize the process, to summarize some of the criteria and considerations that we went through in the discussions, and then to summarize, of course, the recommendations from the committee at the end of it,” Wolf said.

Why it matters: The district faces a multi‑million‑dollar gap that staff and trustees said will require a combination of cuts and site consolidations unless alternative revenue or savings are identified. The committee’s rankings are intended to inform — not decide — board action. Trustees asked staff for updated enrollment, transfer and fiscal-impact data and for scenario analyses of alternatives the committee and public proposed.

What the committee recommended: For high schools the committee reported a three‑tier result, presented alphabetically within tiers to avoid pitting schools directly against each other. The first tier listed Elsie Allen (often called “LC Allen” in committee materials) and Montgomery High School; the second tier listed Santa Rosa High School; and the third…