Penngrove Elementary School will close the school to students while the polls open

After a series of threats that led to the dramatic evacuation and closure of Penngrove Elementary School earlier this monthparents have begun to express concerns about Sonoma County’s plans to use the school as one of the voting centers in this year’s elections.

County elections officials responded that there was not enough time to move because there was not a large enough site nearby with sufficient parking and access, especially since the previously used fire station was undergoing redevelopment.

However, after creative negotiations, a solution was found that will allow voting to continue, but without children being present at school.

Petaluma City Schools communications coordinator Amy Fadeji said the school had been looking for an alternative since the decision to place the center on the Penngrove campus.

“Even before this incident (October 14), parents were wondering if there was a way to set up a safe voting center away from students,” Fadeji said.

Principal Carley Harp raised concerns about a lack of parking and heavy traffic at the intersection adjacent to the school.

“Our campus is not completely fenced, so people are concerned about people accidentally having access to our children,” Penngrove mother Lindsey Moran, a Democrat, told The Press on Monday.

Moran and other parents became increasingly concerned after: a parent and a former district employee threatened the schoolwho was not in session at that time.

Kevin Harrington, 47 arrested after the episode and sent to prison on various felony charges. He was on the school campus at the time of the threat, although the school was not in session that day.

“Harrington was there on campus slamming windows… people were very, very scared by it,” Moran said. “I wasn’t going to send my kids back then… I can’t bear the risk.”

Deva Proto, an official with the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters, told parents there was no other place to go with the polling place.

She says there are too many requirements to meet electoral mandates and too few locations in the same area meet those requirements.

In previous years, the center was located at the Rancho Adobe fire station, near the school, or at the nearby fire station club.

None of these locations meet size, safety or Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

After weeks of talks with trade union representatives and district authorities, a solution was born.

The district is scheduled to hold parent-teacher conferences in November that will last four half days.

Instead, they will hold them for the full two days during the voting period, which means there will be no children on campus while voters come and go.

The days originally scheduled for conferences, November 18-22, will now be full school days.

The voting point will be open for four days – from Saturday, November 2 to Tuesday, November 5 – from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and anyone from the entire county will be able to vote there.

“We understand that we are a public institution and we want to support the democratic process as best we can,” Fadeji said.

“I don’t know if it really addresses the issue of staff safety, but I don’t know how concerned staff are when students are not on campus,” Moran said. “But people seem quite happy with it. I’m quite happy with this solution.”

Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child care issues for The Press Democrat. She can be reached at [email protected].