Folsom Cordova school board approves Alder Creek Elementary School project

Folsom Cordova Unified School District unanimously approved a resolution at the March 23 board meeting to build Alder Creek Elementary School. "We will have a groundbreaking at Alder Creek before the school year is out," said Angela Griffin, Folsom Cordova Unified School District director of communication and community engagement. The new school will be located at 4545 Old Ranch Way Folsom, and construction of a new single building will include a two-story elementary school in the Folsom Ranch development area, according to the FCUSD project fact sheet. Alder Creek's building square footage will be 71,000 with a capacity of 764 students and will service grades TK-5. Alder Creek construction will begin this month and is scheduled to be completed in July 2024. The board also determined at the meeting the project has been "adequately analyzed by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and that no further environmental documentation is required." In other news: Superintendent Sarah Koligian announced new leadership within FCUSD for the 2023-24 school year. "Ian Shepley will be the new assistant principal for Mitchell Middle school for the upcoming school year," Koligian said. Shepley is a California native who has spent time as a principal at the intermediate, middle and high school levels. He was also a high school social studies teacher in Houston, Texas, according to Koligian. Koligian said Brooke Hoppe will be the new assistant principal at Mills Middle school in Rancho Cordova. Hoppe has more than 17 years of experience in education. She joined FCUSD in 2014 as a high school English teacher and then academic support coach, according to Koligian. "I'm very excited and looking forward to this new opportunity and responsibility that I have to Mills," Hoppe said. Koligian also announced Brian Zan as the assistant principal for Sutter Middle School in Folsom. She said Zan has 23 years of experience in education and is a familiar face around FCUSD since he worked as an administrator for nine years. Zan said he is looking forward to the upcoming school year. Blanca Matthews made public comments at the meeting and encouraged the school board to support measures for financial literacy and education in public schools. She also requested that the board send a letter of opposition to the "cancer prevention act," which requires an HPV vaccine at some California schools. "HPV is not a communicable disease, it's a sexually transmitted disease. You can't just sit in a classroom and get this virus," Matthews said. Matthews also urged the board not to support a measure she said would allow the superintendent of public instruction to be chosen by the governor instead of being voted in. "Superintendent is not supposed to Democratic or Republican. They're nonpartisan, but if the governor chooses, it might not be like that," Matthews said. Dan McCrossen, the music director at Mills Middle School, raised concerns about unruly student behavior in the classrooms. "I've been asked to speak on behalf of teachers who are struggling in the classroom every single day," McCrossen said. "Kids are throwing things and using racial slurs, sexual insults, threats and profanity." McCrossen said the teachers are being blamed for not de-escalating situations when they haven't been trained to handle meltdowns from students. He said the protocol in place isn't working and asked that the board provide training for teachers. He also asked for an effective resolution for dangerous, harmful and disruptive student behavior.