On April 23, 2024, a group of citizens who want to convert the Redwood Valley School campus into a community center held a meeting at the Redwood Valley Grange. The effort is spearheaded by retired Eagle Peak School teacher and Municipal Advisory Council Alternate Member Marybeth Kelly, and Dr. Marvin Trotter, who was instrumental in forming the Alex Rorabaugh Recreation Center in Ukiah. Kelly, Trotter, Rosemary Eddy, Sandra Khankhanian, and others have been meeting every other Monday at the Testa Coffee Shop.
Kelly presented a brief history of the school. In 1921 ranchers J.M. and Florence Wooley donated land for both the Redwood Valley School and Grange. In 1922 the first school was built. The present campus was built in 1956. The Wooleys’ intent was for the land to stay in public use, as documented by real estate records, showing that the lands for the School and Grange were sold for $10 each. For many years there was a monument with a memorial plaque about the Wooley donation. No one can find the plaque, which the Wooley descendants would like to see again.
In 1966, in a controversial move, the Redwood Valley School became part of the Ukiah Unified School District. This sparked a protest from parents who marched across Highway 101 with banners, covered by San Francisco’s ABC7 News. Potter Valley and Hopland’s parents also protested the consolidation into UUSD, and Potter Valley formed a separate school district.
The Redwood Valley and Hopland Schools were closed by the District in 2010. Because of strong support from Hopland residents to keep a school in town, the Hopland campus was converted to a charter school. River Oak Charter School looked at the Redwood Valley campus, but determined that the amount of work necessary to bring it up to code was out of their budget.
Despite its spectacular 12.4-acre Russian Riverfront setting, the campus becomes more rundown by the day. The District has not maintained the grounds, strewn with garbage, graffiti, and overgrown landscaping. The invasive Tree of Heaven has taken over the campus and is encroaching on neighboring properties and into the river.
Various attempts have been made by the UUSD between 2017 and 2020 to offload the campus, but there haven’t been any takers. Because of legal restrictions on selling school district properties, the District was first required to try some unusual real estate tactics rather than simply putting the campus up for sale.
It was suggested that the County take over the campus as a park, but because of budget cuts, the County is already unable to afford operations and maintenance at the existing county parks.
First, the campus was offered to other public entities, but none were interested. In 2019, there was an attempt to do an exchange agreement with developer Gary Breen, where Breen would have to find a similar property to exchange for the Redwood Valley campus. This was a difficult concept from the outset, and Breen did not acquire the campus.
In June 2023 the District Trustees decided to sell the campus through a two-phase bidding process with a minimum bid of $900,000. There were no bidders. Having exhausted that option, in October 2023, the Trustees voted to put the campus up for sale in a public bidding process with bids due on January 18, 2024. No bids were received.
At the April board meeting, the Trustees voted to apply for a waiver from State Board of Education which would allow them to bypass the open bidding process and sell the property on the open market. A broker could and most likely would be used to market the property. Kelly and others asked that the Trustees delay that process, as they are ramping up efforts to get the community center started. The District claims that the waiver is needed if they decide to lease the property, so they voted to apply for it.
Redwood Valley resident Dr. Marvin Trotter spoke to the group about his efforts to start the Alex Rorabaugh Recreation Center in Ukiah. The ARRC is located at Grace Hudson School, part of the UUSD. The ARRC has a 50-year lease on the land. Dr. Trotter wants to create a second ARRC site at the Redwood Valley School. The idea is to lease the property from the school district, not purchase it. According to Dr. Trotter, ARRC charter documents allow for expansion, so this is an already-existing legal entity that can negotiate with the District. There is no need for the current group to form a new legal entity. The ARRC is outside of the Ukiah city limits, yet is managed by the City of Ukiah, so there is already precedent for Ukiah to manage a center outside of the city limits. Dr. Trotter has been in talks with Ukiah city officials about expanding the ARRC to Redwood Valley.
The ARRC began as a Boys and Girls Club. The founders raised $9 million over 17 years. Dr. Trotter said it is critical for kids to get more exercise. Only 10% of fifth graders in the local schools have passed the Presidential Fitness Test, and only 40% of UUSD students are testing at grade level. Trotter says students “need to read and run.”
Dr. Trotter‘s vision would be to begin work on the outdoor playing fields, then renovation of the gym, which is in pretty good shape, with a beautiful wood floor. Future steps would be to renovate community classrooms, create community gardens, renovation of the existing commercial kitchen, a little free library, and connecting this campus to the existing District-owned Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project located about a quarter mile from the campus. The RVOEP is a 45-acre open-air science classroom in the form of a park with trails leading to the Russian River. The campus is also alongside the planned route for the Great Redwood Trail. Trotter said, “This is about future generations.”
Through his work as a medical doctor, Trotter sees first-hand the difficulty of attracting nurses to this area because of lack of affordable housing. He envisions using two acres in the northwest section of the campus as tiny homes for teachers and nurses, to help get them settled without having to search for housing.
Also present at the meeting was building contractor, Eastok Menton. Menton has renovated several buildings for community use, including the Round Valley Library and Community Center. Menton turned a dilapidated building in Covelo into a community showpiece. Menton said, “This is an absolutely repeatable exercise.” After the meeting, we asked Menton about the asbestos in the Redwood Valley School buildings. According to Menton, older buildings with asbestos are remediated all the time.
If you support this effort, Kelly and Dr. Trotter ask that you please attend the May 9 Ukiah Unified School Board meeting at 6:30 pm, 511 South Orchard Avenue, Ukiah, and/or write to the School Board Trustees, stating your preference for turning the school into a community center. Email addresses for the Trustees are available here.
The goal is to have the community group work with the ARRC and the City of Ukiah to put together a proposal in advance of the next school board meeting.
MAC Vice Chair Jini Reynold said, “If the 30 of us in this room tonight call all our friends and put some time and energy into one-on-one conversation, and get people talking about this, and get them involved, it could be a big help.”
The local Rotary Clubs were an important factor in getting the ARRC built, so they will be contacted. Mendocino College has a green building program. An attendee suggested that the college could use the RV campus as a training center for learning green building techniques, especially since there is going to be some asbestos to remediate. Another source of help on this could be the Leadership Mendocino Group.Dr. Trotter is putting out a call to write letters and come to meetings. The next community meeting at the Grange will be on May 7th at 6 pm, two days before the School Board meeting.
This is a wonderful project – am praying that all goes forward as planned!!
Thank you for the information Monica Huettl. wouldn’t it be wonderful of the old school is saved and the fields rejuvenated and the school could once again be a jewel for RV and others? Grateful that Marvin trotter already has a big interest in this proposal.
I remember when I had to sit in that gymnasium after school one day around 6th grade and go through sex education class with my Dad. Yes a parent was required to be with you. It was a reel to reel film protector blasted on the huge screen on the wall. The film was from probably 1970. There were maybe a half dozen students with their fathers. The girls had to do the same thing with their mothers. I remember it was a horribly awkward experience. Circa 1986. Awe the good old days. I was a student at the old RV Middle School 4th grade through 7th grade. Then I went to Pomolita for 8th grade. I try to block out that time of my life at RV school. My teachers were Mr. Atkinson in 4th, James Kennon in 5th then in 6th you had a different teacher for each period and you got a locker which was cool. 6th and 7th grades I had John Tanning, Wayne Bell, Charles Bliss, Donna Mecca, Charlotte Campbell, and Patrick Walsh and Mr. Puterbaugh, I don’t remember who our P.E. teacher was but Dr. Gary Brawley was principal and Mr. Campbell was vice principal. And Mr. Zwicky was the campus cop. Some of those teachers were wonderful and some weren’t. I don’t know how I survived.
Our P.E. Teacher at R.V. was Ms. Hansen. She taught P.E. at Pomolita too at least till 2016 because she was my step-daughter’s P.E. teacher then and when I met her again she remembered me and my little brother from 30 years prior.