For one thing, the student population of the school that teaches kindergarten through eighth grade has grown from less than 100 to 772. Her mission as a teacher and principal has always been to provide students with the support and skills they need to succeed both academically and in life. But she says her mission could not have been accomplished without the support of parents and district Superintendent R. Roger Rowe, who plans to retire soon. He's done a fantastic job. In addition to her admiration for Rowe's leadership, Sumida says the level of community interest in education and parental involvement is what makes Rancho Santa Fe School special.
Parents are very interested in education, and they get involved.
They volunteer in the classrooms and library and drive on field trips. There's also a lot of communication between the school and the parents, so students get a lot of support at home. In addition, the Parent-Teacher Organization funds smaller class sizes for fourth through eighth grade, special programs such as choral music, fine art, instrumental music, Spanish classes, computer lab and annual events such as Science Discovery Day and Ocean Week, which features studies of the nearby tidelands and wetlands. When she's not busy seeing that everything runs right at Rancho Santa Fe school, Sumida enjoys visiting Balboa Park museums, going to the theater and taking long weekends in San Francisco with her husband, who is an architect. Pat Stein is a free-lance writer from Cardiff.