After a hot, dry summer, parents and students met Monday, Aug. 5, for Back to School Night events at West Sedona School and Sedona Red Rock High School. Tuesday, Aug. 6 was opening day for students of the Sedona-Oak Creek School District.
“My feeling personally when I saw that enormous crowd on Monday night [at Sedona Red Rock High School] and the kids on opening day … in my heart I felt like I was home with the kids and teachers where I should be,” Superintendent Dennis Dearden said.
Administration Building Rental At the Aug. 6 board meeting, the district announced it is in discussions with an organization to rent the 8,000-square-foot Nancy J. Alexander Administration Center for a long-term rental agreement of the facility.
The board meeting was convening in its third location in three months — part of the ongoing plan of moving out of the former Alexander building and instead meeting on school grounds.
Due to the nature of the discussions, Facilities and Operations Manager Jennifer Chilton said SOCSD would not name the organization but said a lease agreement has been given to the potential renter’s board to vote on.
“They are down to two options: One, a long-term lease of the Sedona-Oak Creek [School] District property or the possibility of purchasing their current building,” Chilton said. “They are committed to have an answer for us by September.”
The building, is zoned by the city of Sedona as Community Facility which the city says “is primarily for the accommodation of public/semi-public uses. The CF district includes community uses such as public safety facilities, schools, libraries, community centers, city buildings and public utilities.”
“We’re in negotiations with them
and we were hoping to find something out today [Aug. 6],” Dearden said. “We gave them a lease agreement and they are going to come up with their terms to negotiate with us. We want to get it rented as soon as we possibly can.” If the lease is agreed upon, the soonest it could be official would be after the Governing Board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 10, when the vote would take place.
- New Teachers
The board welcomed two new teachers for introduction after the meeting convened.
“Last night [at parents’ back-to-school night] I got some comments on ‘Why did you cut orchestra?” Deaden said. “I want to go on the record that we did not cut the program. We’re thriving.”
He then had new orchestra teacher Nathaniel Wolkstein play a brief classical violin solo followed by a jazz trumpet performance to introduce new WSS band teacher Wise.
“It was a rumor last spring that we were cutting the program and we never had any intentions of cutting it,” Dearden said. “In fact we wanted to expand, which is why we restructured to save money in order to put band in the elementary [school], and we thought it was very important with the great facility we have to move Theater Arts to a full time position.
“It should be a showcase.”
- Back to School
A year ago on opening day, Dearden was new to students and administration, hired as new superintendent eight weeks before the start of class. Dearden and the staff spent 2018-19 restructuring for a new direction. SOCSD Governing Board President Randy Hawley said everyone has noticed a difference.
“What I have seen change is we’ve had financial difficulties for a long time and the way that was addressed is to sit down and say, ‘What can we cut?’” Hawley said. “Denny [Dearden] came in and said ‘How can we restructure?’ There is a huge difference between the two.”
Some of those changes: Adding new teachers and new programs, including the addition of band curriculum at West Sedona School under new teacher Chris Wise. Opening day this year was noticeably upbeat.
“I was approached by numerous people here [at West Sedona] and at the high school thanking me and they said, ‘Boy, you could just feel the difference, the excitement and the culture,’” Hawley said.
“I just walk around and connect with kids and ask them how their day is going,” Dearden said. “I want them to feel that we as administrators are connected to them. That was exciting and the day went very quickly.”
Don Eicher can be reached at 282-7795 ext 126 or email at deicher@larsonnewspapers.com
