All dressed up and no one to show: West Park High School opens without students
Becky Guzman dressed the part for the first day of school on Wednesday and bounded onto campus with unbridled enthusiasm she could share with only a few.
She is principal of the new the West Park High School in the Roseville Joint Unified School District, with a grand opening clouded by COVID. She wore a sleeveless navy blue dress, paired with gold-colored earrings and matching open-toe shoes, an ensemble capturing the school colors. She smiled – but behind the school-colored face covering with the mascot “Panthers” splashed across the front.
Opening a sparkling and sprawling campus normally comes with all the bells and whistles of a grand-opening party, worthy of the build-up. But this Roseville campus was still. There wasn’t a student to be found.
The only sounds were of construction for Phase 2 of this Measure D project and the chatter of teachers dotted across the campus, some in three-story buildings with views of the Sierra, for Day 1 of distance learning required because the coronavirus pandemic.
The 600 freshmen and sophomores who now call West Park theirs will show up on campus one day – perhaps by winter – but they could only peek at the grounds through virtual means. Some toured the campus with parents over the summer.
Now, Placer County schools have embarked on distance learning as they, like schools in Sacramento and Yolo counties, have not been able to open while their jurisdictions struggle to bring down the number of coronavirus cases.
No amount of campus quiet dulled the spirit of Guzman, whose energy is matched by her staff. She was hired just over a year ago to lead this campus charge, plucked from nearby Woodcreek High, where she was principal for three years.
Guzman sought new challenges of learning. Nowhere in her years of experience and piles of paperwork has she or anyone come across “pandemic.” Every day is a new experience.
“It’s so exciting to build this but the hardest part is we can’t show it off,” Guzman said. “I feel like I have a secret and can’t tell anyone. This is a soft open. We’ll have our big open, our party, and the weather won’t be a problem.”
Guzman understands weather. She grew up in Colorado, where winters often included the need to scrape a windshield of ice and snow just to get out of the driveway.
Her parents moved to Placer County when she was 22 – “they bribed me” she said – with the promise that if she didn’t like the new surroundings, she could go back. Twenty-two years later, she’s rooted here.
Guzman’s husband, Tino Guzman, is the principal at Antelope High. They speak the universal language of education and student development. They live with their young children Jackson, Savannah and Kennedy, near the West Park campus.
“We have date nights that don’t include any principal talk,” Guzman said with a laugh. “I love living here and the proximity. You can go to San Francisco to see ‘Hamilton’ and the next day be in Tahoe paddle boarding, and this is a great place to live.”
Football on hold, too
Walk into the school’s main office off 2401 High School Road and you see stacks of boxes with school supplies and text books . There have been delays in some orders, typical of the crush to open on time.
Football coach Jason Tenner is waiting for shoulder pads. He doesn’t have to stress about such vital gear right now because all fall sports have been pushed back to the winter months to buy time in combating and dealing with the coronavirus.
On hold is football and on-campus activities. The students can’t appreciate the modern furniture in classrooms with natural lighting.
”This isn’t your parent’s old high school,” Tenner said with a laugh.
The campus is outlined by dreamy sports fields, and a weight room just waiting to be used. Of that space, Tenner said: “Here is where all the magic starts, where kids bond, where championship dreams start.”
Tenner said he hopes to meet with football players in the coming weeks for on-campus workouts. He still doesn’t know if he has a quarterback.
“I’ve already had to kick some kids off our field, but I loved seeing them out there having fun,” Tenner said.
Tenner is a towering figure at 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds. He is engaging and bright. He is an Advanced Placement history teacher who grew up in the Bay Area knowing his destiny was to teach and coach.
Tenner chased those ambitions as a standout defensive tackle at Villanova, leading to a brief stint with the 49ers.
Football is often an identifying sport to kick off an academic year, and ushering in a new campus and era takes a unique coach.
”He’s the perfect coach for us,” Guzman said of Tenner.
Tenner, 43, previously coached and taught at Ponderosa High in Shingle Springs and at Sheldon High in the Elk Grove Unified School District. There will be no more stops, he said.
“This is it for me,” Tenner said. “Someday, 20 years from now, we’ll all look back here on campus and be proud of what we started. I’m humbled to be here. It’s anticlimactic to an extent to open this week without students, but we’re dealing with it. Opening a new school is always a challenge, but opening and not being able to meet students is a big tease. It’s brutal.”
Exercising patience
John Hildebrand is the West Park athletic director who also embraces a new-school challenge after years of teaching and coaching at Woodcreek.
He also enjoys the campus family feel. His wife Kassie is a counselor on campus.
The Hildebrands have three kids, including teenage sons Carter and Noah. Their first day of school at West Park was done by distant means.
”It’ll be exciting to have everyone on campus,” Hildebrand said. “We have to be patient. That’s the hardest part.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM.