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by Kathleen Reynolds
The year was 1949. The family car might have been a Chevy Stylemaster with Bel Air hardtop or the Super Deluxe Ford wood-paneled station wagon. If you lived in Napa, your school clothes were probably purchased at JC Penney, Carithers, Montgomery Ward or Alberts. Girls wore cotton dresses with full skirts, Peter Pan collars and puffed sleeves. Sensible, study oxford shoes were the norm; kids and teens wore them with bobby socks.
A brand-new Napa school opened that year, Alta Heights Elementary on Montecito Blvd.
“In 1949, I think Alta Heights Elementary was kindergarten through third grade,” says Alta Heights Principal Ted Ward. “We now have 317 students in 16 classrooms. We’ve always been a small, neighborhood school but we’ve grown in the last few years since COVID, which is a good thing in a city where declining enrollment is a reality.”
The school currently has students ranging from Transitional Kindergarten (required by the State of California for four-year-olds turning five during the school year) to fifth grade.
“As we reflect in the 75th year of the school, we’re proud that the school reflects the diversity of the town, that the diversity of the students are a mix of racial ethnicity and economic income levels in the town of Napa,” says Ted, a Napa native. “The pride that the city of Napa has in showing off our community to tourists and visitors is just like the pride we have here in showing off our school to guests who want to tour or see our programing. We’re proud of the community that we’ve created.”
The school celebrated with a Harvest Festival Open House in October this year to show off their recently completed $2 million rehab.
“All of the facility improvements in city schools in California must come from local dollars,” says Ted, whose wife and her sisters attended Alta Heights. “Because the State of California Public Education doesn’t provide us with adequate funding, we rely on local funding sources. One of the thoughts was that a lot of the public schools in Napa are 50-75 years old. Since Alta Heights already had new roofing, new heating, air conditioning and pathway improvements about three summers ago, we could make Alta Heights a model school.”
“The thought was if we show how these interior classroom building updates could look and the positive impact it could have on our school community, it will give our community a chance to see what funding would go toward. It’s what we’re trying to do with every school in Napa.”
“As part of the upgrades, every classroom received new carpet and the walls were stripped of old cable and coax wires, holes were patched, cleaned and painted.”
“We have new updated modern classroom furniture. It’s mobile to meet the flexible needs of student learning. For instance, in fourth and fifth grade we have desks that can go up or down whether the student is standing or sitting while learning. They can write on the desk, which has a gloss finish so they can work through math problems on their desks, rather than have a whiteboard with them.”
“All the classes have cordless document cameras that allow the teachers to move with them throughout the classroom to show student work or how to complete an assignment. The teacher desks are mobile as well, so they can move around the room to meet with students. There’s more engagement and mobility that supports the learning environment.”
Old, outdated clocks were replaced.
“Another upgrade is a digital clock and intercom system that, in addition to looking nice, allows for safety. Where it used to be that the whole school would hear an announcement, now we can call directly to a classroom, we’re more targeted. The digital displays allow for the scroll of a safety message if we’re in a safety situation.”
Ted assures parents that students will learn how to tell time on an analog clock as part of their math curriculum. The children aren’t always confined to the classroom, either.
“We pride ourselves in our natural surroundings and we have a thriving garden program with student participation. We’re in a beautiful, natural setting that we try to get kids out and learning from regularly.”
With the multiple problems plaguing schools across the country, what are the challenges at Alta Heights?
“One of the biggest challenges is trying to make sure that we have the resources to meet the varied learning needs of all our students,” says Ted. “We have students who receive a lot of at-home academic support and come in with high, well-developed academic skill sets. We also have students who come to school needing more scaffolded support and a specific set of resources. Our staff do a wonderful job providing both challenge and support as they help all our student succeed, however, that differentiation of learning is one of the biggest challenges that our teachers and our staff face.”
Ted laughs when asked about his biggest personal challenge.
“I love my job and don’t think of it as a challenge. I would say the challenge always remains to make sure that our teachers and staff have the time and resources to meet those varied learning needs of our students. It’s trying to provide professional development and support for teachers. We’ve noticed a trend since COVID throughout the country that kids are on their devices at home more than they used to be. They need social skill development and more social, emotional support than before. We ask a lot as a community of our teachers, and we want to make sure that they feel supported and have what they require.”
Ted talks about the controversy of allowing students to have phones in the classroom.
“That’s more a problem with secondary, middle and high school. We don’t have the challenge at the elementary level. At least at Alta Heights, we haven’t had any concerns with phones. It’s something that the State of California and our school district are in conversations now about what policies should be in place to limit phone use during the school day.”
Alta Heights has a generational legacy.
“It’s great that we have grandparents here who were Gators (the school mascot) themselves years ago and they say, “I went here, my kids went here and now my grandkids.” In Napa there’re a lot of historical ties to the Alta Height community. It’s fun to hear those stories when the grandparents come to school.”
“The connections we have with each other is what we feel is most important. I feel Alta Heights is a school that prides itself on having a strong community that includes students, staff, families and extended family members, those who went to the school in the past and still come to the Harvest Festival in October and the May Fiesta. That part of an inclusive community, that diverse representation of our town, is what we pride ourselves in.”
Tour ALta Heights
707.253.3672
15 Montecito Blvd.
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