Point Reyes Light - October 7, 1999
Technology and tradition at Chileno Valley's Laguna School
This is the last in a series on West Marin's one-school districts.
A bulletin board at Laguna School reads, "Welcome Back Mates," to promote learning about Australia. The board also marks the start of a new school year - the 110th - at this tiny district in the Chileno Valley.
While the style and format of education that has consistently guided Laguna may trace from another century, programs like it have become a model for school districts statewide.
Teachers, parents and students at Laguna have known all along the lesson that others are now learning - that small class size plus a strong commitment from the community are vital to a school's success.
Nestled in hills of Chileno Valley, Laguna School looks at first like a small white house. Vineyards cover the hills across the street, birds chirp from nearby trees, and the hum of a tractor can be heard from a nearby ranch.
The giveaway is the playground, and the steeple (which has no bell; the original was donated in the effort to win World War II). Inside, 23 children are busy learning in small groups.
With one fulltime teacher, two parttime teachers, parent volunteers and regular help from the Marin County Office of Education, Laguna has no trouble meeting the diverse needs of its students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
"Our kids are served amazingly well," said teacher and principal Lynda Balzan, whose small student body includes kids who test out as gifted as well as kids who speak English as a second language.
"We're really non-graded [this year]," she said. "We're trying to meet their needs rather than focus on grade levels."
Although actually two large rooms joined by an expansive archway, the schoolhouse feels like one big room divided into separate areas. Eleven younger students sit in rows of desks on one side and the twelve older students are clear across the room on the other. There is a large table in the middle, where students come and go at different times during the day, depending on the activity.
"We try to watch abilities and have the kids join the other side as needed. We cross the line so much," Balzan said.
The spacious classrooms also have two computer work stations, a kitchen play area, shelves of books, and a cozy sofa. Several large, colorfully decorated bulletin boards are framed by 12 windows that look out onto rolling hillsides dotted with wildflowers and vineyards.
The original main entrance of the school has been converted to a small office and kitchen.
Balzan, who is in her third year as teacher and principal, has the help of two part-time teachers whose hours overlap, so there is always another teacher in the room. Balzan focuses on the upper grades while Pam Brambila and Susan Bloom teach the kindergartners through third graders.
Specialists from the Marin Office of Education visit the school every week to provide services to kids who need extra help, and parent volunteers are always available "to do anything I ask," said Balzan.
Although there is a lot going on inside the rooms, no one is goofing around. Some of the students in the older group are helping each other while Balzan is working with another student one on one. Bloom has pairs of students working on math, and the younger students are practicing reading together with Brambila.
"When I first came, I noticed there was a wonderful hum in here that you really couldn't see," Balzan explained. "It happens all the time."
Bloom lives in the Chileno Valley and both of her children went through the school. She started as a teachers aide 23 years ago even though she had a teachers credential, because she liked the school so much.
"The first two years I was here, there were mainly ranchers' children," she said. "Then we got lots of interdistrict students. Now parents want to be more involved and have more of a say," she said.
Bloom also said that children have changed. "Their attitudes are different. In society as a whole, kids are more savvy."
After graduation, most Laguna students attend Petaluma Junior High, where they traditionally do very well. Balzan said that the sixth graders attend Shadow Day at the junior high to get a feel for what 7th grade will be like, and she contacts the school when she has questions about curriculum.
Bloom speaks highly of her own children's experience at Laguna. "My daughter always said she felt [her education] at Laguna made her more independent in junior high," she said.
Records at the Marin County Office of Education indicate that Laguna School District was organized in 1867, and then reorganized in 1889 to included the southern portion of Sonoma County, and was thus renamed the Laguna Joint School District.
The original building was located across the street from the current one, which was built in 1906.
Thirty-year school board trustee Don Moreda told The Light that the biggest change he sees is the move toward newer technology, but that excellent teachers and the rural atmosphere contribute most to the school's success.
"Half of our students come from out of the district," he said. "They are coming by world of mouth. They've heard about the education here. It's a small school and the teachers have more control."
The lowest enrollment anyone can remember was 10 students in 1977. After opening their doors to students from outside the district, the school population rose to a high of 35 in the late 1980s, prompting the second room to be added on.
Moreda also said that his school runs high reserve funds compared to other schools. "We don't have fancy gardens or anything like that," he said. "The community gets involved, and we get volunteers for things that other districts have to pay for."
The district covered the full $200,000 cost of building the second room and the entire facility is very clean and well maintained.
Small schools like Laguna benefit from California's Class Size Reduction Program, which offers incentive funding when kindergarten through third grade classes are kept at 20 children or fewer.
Laguna also took advantage of a $25,000 technology grant in 1997, as well as other site grants that come up, in which the school can receive as much as any other school in the state regardless of size.
In addition to the traditional subjects taught by Balzan and her staff, the school has contracts with Young Imaginations, who provide a music program, and Youth In Arts provides projects like paper design, painting, and ink drawing.
The entire school community gets together several times a year for a winter music program, end-of-the-year picnic at the Point Reyes National Seashore, and celebrates graduation with music, coffee and cake. Six students will graduate in 2000.
The annual open-house evening has 100-percent attendance, and even grandparents show up.
Although things are running smoothly now, such was not the case in August 1995, when longtime teacher, principal and superintendent Mary Ann Diaz-Romero hastily resigned without giving trustees an explanation. The opening of school was delayed until a replacement could be found.
The school went through three replacements over the next two years until Balzan was hired in September of 1997.
Moreda attributes Laguna's current success to her. "Lynda is doing a good job," he said. "The kids respond to her. She has brought a lot of people into the school because of what she does."
A bulletin board titled "What Makes Us Happy" proudly displays answers such as "Spending time with the elderly," or "Reading a good book."
A student named Ben wrote an essay last year that might sum it up best. "As I've grown through this year, certain changes happened to me. I had pretty much good feelings this year. I've grown able to concentrate better. I didn't really have that many goals, but one goal was to get better at math, so I tried my hardest and improved myself so much that this year on my report card I got all A's in math...
"When I first came to look at this school I asked my mom why we were stopping at this house. I was right, it was a house and everyone at this school is a family. It is so easy to learn here. Everybody gets their own computer and I think that's pretty cool...
"I really like this school. This is the closest you can get to be free in a school."