(Over the next few days, the Benicia Herald will close out 2016 by revisiting the big local news stories of the year. Today’s edition will focus on Benicia’s schools.)

Although 2015 was a big year for Benicia Unified School District in terms of leadership changes and Measure S bond projects, 2016 was even bigger.

Leadership/personnel changes

Benicia High School, Benicia Middle School and Matthew Turner Elementary School all saw changes in leadership in 2016. Brianna Kleinschmidt, a vice principal and former English/yearbook teacher who also graduated from the school in 1997, was announced as the principal in March taking the reins of interim principal Mark Corti. Filling Kleinschmidt’s old position was Dr. James Brown, an administrator with extensive educational experience, including as an instructional technology coach and coordinator with Calistoga Joint Unified School District and an associate professor at both Touro University and Sonoma State University.

Following the resignation of Benicia Middle School Principal Stephen Brady in February, Damian Scott was announced as the new principal in April. Scott had previously served as an administrative principal at Alhambra High School in Martinez.

Additionally, Marie Morgan, the assistant superintendent of educational services, left to become the new superintendent of Walnut Creek School District. This position was filled by Dr. Leslie Beatson, the principal of Matthew Turner Elementary. That left a void in the top leadership position at Matthew Turner, but it was quickly filled by Stephen Slater, a longtime teacher and administrator at several schools throughout Contra Costa County.

There were also several retirements by longtime BUSD teachers in 2016. Deborah Casey and Michael Mullikin bid farewell after 35 years of service at Benicia Middle and Matthew Turner respectively. At Benicia High, English teacher Marie Barde, social science teacher Suzette Mehl and special education teachers Anne Henly and Patricia Thrift also retired after long tenures. Additionally, the school’s drama teacher for 17 years, Christine Mani, left to take a new job as a theater instructor at Solano Community College. She was succeeded by Nathan Day, a drama teacher at Rodriguez High School in Fairfield, who directed his first play with the school— “12 Angry Men”— in December.

2016 also saw the hiring of a new counselor at Benicia High School, something the district and community had been requesting for years. The hiring of Mynor Maldonado, a psychology graduate from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, brings the school’s counselor total to four, making it easier to divide the workload. With it came a restructuring of student counselor assignments. Rather than being assigned alphabetically, students are now assigned to their counselor by grade.

BUSD’s Governing Board also saw some major changes. Following the death of Trustee Rosie Switzer in November 2015, the board interviewed three applicants to fill her seat. Of those, the board voted 3-to-1 to appoint Stacy Holguin, the vice president of the Benicia Education Foundation and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley.

As Switzer was eligible to run for re-election in November, Holguin was placed on the two-year rotation to fill out the remainder of Switzer’s term. However, when the time came to fill out election papers, she instead opted to run for a four-year term while social worker Celeste Monnette ran for the two-year term. With only Holguin, Monnette and incumbent President Gary Wing running with no opposition, the board chose to forego an election that year. Following the retirement of Trustee Andre Stewart, Monnette was sworn in in December, along with Holguin and Wing.

At the county level, Superintendent Jay Speck announced he would retire after 40 years with the Solano County Office of Education. He will be succeeded by Lisette Estrella-Henderson on Jan. 1.

Measure S

In 2014, Benicia voters approved Measure S, which would set aside $49.6 million in bond money for projects that would improve student life. Projects completed in 2016 included installing new security cameras at Benicia High and upgrading the fire alarm system at Benicia Middle. Perhaps the weightiest project is the renovation of Benicia High’s stadium. Demolition of the old stadium began in July, and a groundbreaking for the new one was held in August. The stadium is expected to be be completed in the spring.

Threats/incidents

BUSD experienced an unusual number of scares over the course of the year, although thankfully not any where anyone was hurt. In May, BMS was placed on temporary lockdown following reports of a person carrying a gun in the parking lot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints across the street. After a search of the area failed to turn up the alleged carrier, students returned to class.

In September, a Benicia High School student made violent threats against his school on the messaging site Kik. After the incident was reported to the police, the school was placed on lockdown and the student was arrested. Kleinschmidt and the police department held an assembly for concerned parents the following morning.

In October, a student reported seeing a post on the Instagram account CLOWNS41 featuring a picture of a creepy clown’s face and the statement, “I’m going to shoot up your school BMS.” Although it was not clear if the threat was intended for Benicia Middle School, police were deployed to the school anyway. Through examining the public wi-fi address, it was later determined that the post came from New Mexico, where there is a Belen Middle School in the Albuquerque region and where the account had sent out similar threats.

Both incidents prompted increased security measures at the high school— including an SMS alert system for parents— and a Cyber Safety Night hosted by the district and police.

Miscellaneous good news

After a year of looking for space, the Hyland Teen Center held its grand opening on Jan. 22. Located in a building behind Gateway Church on Military West, the center provides teens with a place to hang out, study and enjoy various activities, including special theme nights on select Friday. The center was founded by Barbara Gervase, whose son Kyle Hyland had died by suicide in 2014, and donations for the center are still being accepted at youcaring.com/the-kyle-hyland-foundation-for-teen-support-369924.

Three of Benicia’s elementary schools— Mary Farmar, Joe Henderson and Robert Semple— were named as California Gold Ribbon Schools. The other elementary school in the district— Matthew Turner— had previously been honored in 2014.

Benicia High continued work on its Schedule Advisory Committee, which aims to create a new bell schedule for the school by the 2017-18 school year. According to Kleinschmidt’s December newsletter, staff is working to finalize a schedule and is mulling options for a modified block schedule. The school is hoping to deliver a finalized schedule in January.

In November, Robert Semple Elementary was presented with a $3,000 grant which will go toward purchasing yoga mats and DVDs for a unit on mindfulness. The check was provided by the Step Up to the Plate Foundation, a nonprofit founded by San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford aimed at providing academic and athletic needs to schools. Second-grade teacher Chelsea Masters applied for the grant, and she was able to take Principal Christina Moore and students Eli Chaney and Cairo DeCatur on a trip to AT&T Park to meet Crawford and receive the grant money.