Santa Rosa City Schools picked its next superintendent from Oakland Unified — a district that spent 22 years under state control before clawing its way out last summer. Santa Rosa is fighting to keep from going in.
Monica Thomas, a longtime Oakland administrator, was named June 4 to run Sonoma County’s largest school system. The board votes to formalize the hire June 10, and Thomas starts July 1. She’s the third superintendent the district has named in three years.
The job comes with a deadline most districts never face. Santa Rosa is looking at a roughly $20 million shortfall in its main operating fund this year, after burning through its reserves and the one-time pandemic money that had covered years of overspending. A state analyst this winter said the district’s cash crunch was worse than any other in California. Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools Amie Carter has warned it could run out of money to make payroll by the start of the new fiscal year. If that happens, the district takes a state loan and hands over local control. No Sonoma County district ever has.
To get this far, Santa Rosa has closed six schools — Steele Lane Elementary said goodbye to its students June 4 — and cut more than 200 jobs over two years. The reductions wiped out mental-health and wellness staff the schools added during the pandemic. Teachers have voted no confidence in leadership more than once, and in April they marched from Courthouse Square to a board meeting demanding the cuts be reversed.
Thomas has worked for Oakland Unified since 2005, starting as the founding principal of Greenleaf Elementary and moving up through senior administrative jobs. She holds a doctorate from UC Berkeley and speaks Spanish, in a district where a lot of families do too.
What she’s really bringing is a front-row view of where Santa Rosa is headed if the cuts don’t work. Oakland took a $100 million state loan in 2003 — the biggest in California history — and didn’t get its district back until it made the final payment last June, 22 years later. The catch: barely a year after winning its independence, Oakland filed its own “going concern” warning. Thomas has watched both halves of that — that a district can survive receivership, and that getting out isn’t the same as getting healthy.
“I am honored to serve the Santa Rosa City Schools community,” Thomas said in a statement. “My leadership is rooted in the belief that when we cultivate strong partnerships between educators, families and administrators, we create the conditions for every student to thrive.”
Board President Nick Caston pointed to Thomas’ record in Oakland, where he said math scores climbed and chronic absenteeism fell while she was there.
District officials said they couldn’t release Thomas’ salary until the contract posts to the board agenda ahead of the June 10 meeting.
She takes over a district of about 12,000 students and 17 campuses from interim Superintendent Lisa August, the former business chief who has run the cuts since the board fired Daisy Morales in April 2025. Two superintendents in a row couldn’t close the gap. Thomas’ first payroll lands a few weeks after she walks in.