Behind every great school is an incredible team. Our teachers and support staff are more than educators - they're mentors, cheerleaders, and creative partners in your child's journey. Each team member brings years of experience, specialized expertise, and a genuine passion for creating a welcoming, safe space where every student can explore, take risks, and thrive. When you walk through our doors, you'll feel the difference a dedicated, caring community makes.
Mrs. Finley has been teaching for 10 years, including seven years at SRCSA. She enjoys all kinds of visual art, and has always loved photography starting when she was in high school. When she was in elementary school, Mrs. Finley enjoyed art, music, and sports and fondly recalls participating in school plays. Her favorite part about teaching is that every year each class is so different. Mrs. Finley said, "I love all my kids and care about their successes. I love that when a lesson is taught, each child reacts a little differently. I also love my age group because they have such an honest way about them!" Outside of work, Mrs. Finley loves to travel, and enjoys outdoor activities, photography, scrapbooking, gardening, reading, and especially hanging out with her family.
Email: rfinley@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Wilde has been teaching at SRCSA for seven years and for 12 years overall. For three years, she has been the school’s Arts Coordinator as well. Music is the art form that she loves the most. When she was young, she loved learning and school and she was a very hard working student! As an educator she brings that passion of learning to her teaching. Ms. Wilde says she loves “getting to create a positive, fun, caring and safe place for kids to learn.” When she isn’t teaching, she loves gardening and being in nature, and eating organic healthy food.
Email: mwilde@srcs.k12.ca.us
website: https://sites.google.com/srcs.k12.ca.us/f103srcsa/
Mrs. Genolio has been teaching for 20+ years . She enjoys visual arts, and especially loves working with clay. When she was a student, her favorite subjects in school were art, math, and science. What she loves most about teaching is inspiring each of her students to take chances in their learning and discover new things about themselves and their world. When she is not teaching, Mrs. Genolio loves traveling, hiking, kayaking, cooking, and spending time with her family. She also enjoys going on adventures with her two rescue pups and fostering dogs from a local shelter.
Email: sgenolio@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Pearce has been teaching for eight years, and this marks her second year at SRCSA. She has taught kindergarten, third grade, and most recently second grade. As a child she loved art projects and science experiments and looks forward to doing both in her own classroom. What she loves best about teaching is “when I teach a new concept and a bell goes off once they really understand something. It's a great feeling to help a student gain a better understanding of existing concepts too,” she shares.
Email: apearce@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Bryson has been teaching at SRCSA for 7 years, and she worked as a drama and art teacher for ten years prior to starting at SRCSA. She loves theater and performance based activities the most, but she also really enjoys visual art. When she was a child she loved spending time with her friends, making art and being out in nature. She has very vivid memories of art projects she did at school and on her own. Ms. Bryson said, “Teaching is challenging, inspiring and super rewarding! I love those moments in class when I look around the room and my students are totally engaged and energized. The best is when a student finally understands a concept that was challenging for them, when they’ve worked really hard on something and it finally makes sense, and their face just lights up!”
Email: bbryson@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Chesanek has been teaching for 12 years, including six years here at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts. The art forms that she enjoys the most are music and visual arts. When she was a student herself, participating in music was her favorite thing about school. What Ms. Chesanek loves most about teaching is the ability to inspire life-long learners and “making a difference in the lives of students every day.” Outside of the classroom she loves snow skiing, gardening, spending time with her family and swimming. She has two daughters at SRCSA.
Email: mchesanek@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Bradley has been teaching for twelve years, eleven of which have been at SRCSA. With a background in musical theater, Ms. Bradley enjoys dance, music and theater the most. She LOVED school as a child, especially reading, history, spelling and history. What she loves most about teaching is getting to know the students and watching them grow. Ms. Bradley said, “In fourth grade there is so much growth from September to June. Their sense of humor develops, they learn to love reading, and their individuality starts to show. It’s such a cool age.” When Ms. Bradley is not teaching she enjoys spending time with her dogs hiking, watching sports, reading, playing trivia and trying different foods.
Email: sbradley@srcs.k12.ca.us
Web site: http://msbradley.edublogs.org/
Ms. Etienne has been teaching at SRCSA for six years and has been a teacher for 11 years. Her favorite forms of art are visual arts and drama. When she was a student her favorite thing about school was reading and going on field trips. Her favorite thing about being a teacher is “connecting with my students and watching them learn and be excited about it.” Outside of teaching she loves to be outdoors. She enjoys running, biking, gardening, hiking and going to the beach.
Email: fetienne@srcs.k12.ca.us
I have been teaching at SRCSA since 2022. With a strong passion for Ethnic Studies and Arts Integration, I believe in a student-centered approach to education—one that places students at the forefront of research, discovery, and learning. I often tell students that while my official title is “teacher,” I see myself as a learning facilitator. They teach me and their peers every day; my role is to create an environment where every voice is heard, every idea is valued, and together we think critically about literature and curriculum to build perspective, draw new conclusions, and deepen our understanding of the world. Along the way, we develop strong skills in writing, reading, math, and art.
I am especially enthusiastic about project-based learning and arts-integrated curriculum, where learning and creative expression meet. I believe Arts Integration, Social-Emotional Learning, Ethnic Studies, and Culturally Responsive Teaching are interconnected—each supporting the others as essential pillars of a successful education.
As a child, I loved being at school because of the sense of community. Now, it is my mission to cultivate that same sense of belonging for every student who walks into my classroom.
Outside of school, I enjoy making music, creating art, performing at open mics, and relaxing with my own children.
Email: tperetz@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Holmstedt started her teaching career here at SRCSA 13 years ago after working at the Sonoma County Water Agency. Her enthusiasm about science education, and water and fish specifically, is infectious! The type of art she finds most exciting is the visual arts. As a student herself she loved science class and performing experiments and investigations, physical education, as well as school rallies. Ms Holmstedt says, “Seeing kids passionate about the work they do and the ‘ah ha’ moments” is what she loves most about being a teacher. Outside of teaching she enjoys fishing, abalone diving, kayaking, photography, hiking, cooking, playing softball, and of course watching the San Francisco Giants!
Email: mholmstedt@srcs.k12.ca.us
Mr. Kempiak, Mr. K to his students, is in his first year of teaching science at SRCSA. Previously, he has been a chemistry and physics teacher at the high school level for over 20 years. He has a strong love of science as it relates to one of his greatest joys: cooking. "Chemistry is Cooking!", he likes to say in class. As an avid lover of physics, he loves light and its applications in art: the use of shading and palate colors in painting, the use of different camera techniques in photography (he is always trying to get better with his digital camera) and 3D art and sculpture always captures his attention. When he was a student, he loved his science classes! He loved the organized chaos that came from creating something and challenging what he knew (or thought he knew), and then creating new knowledge as he played in class with the various activities. All the smells and things flying through the room always captured his attention. Outside of class, Mr. K loves to cook, and play video and board games with his friends and kids. He loves watching soccer and basketball with his daughter and cheering on the Los Angeles Rams and the SF Giants. His newest passion is to continue to teach himself how to crochet more complicated things.
Email: akempiak@srcs.k12.ca.us
Mr. McDivitt (AKA Mr. Mac) teaches core visual art. He has a big laugh and a lot of patience and enthusiasm when teaching the wide variety of art students at SRCSA.
Email: jmcdivitt@srcs.k12.ca.us
Our Physical Education program uses fitness and skill-based learning, combined with health education to provide our students with a well-rounded physical education curriculum. This course provides students the opportunity to learn through developmentally appropriate games and lessons, planned in accordance with state standards. Strategies and concepts, including sportsmanship, self-responsibility, mindfulness, positive social interaction and group dynamics are interwoven into units on volleyball, basketball, soccer, frisbee, floor hockey, fitness, yoga and dance.
Email: adthomas@srcs.k12.ca.us
A recent graduate of the Sonoma State University teaching credential program, Mr. Ravani is proud to have spent two years teaching at SRCSA and looks forward to many more. His preferred art form is Theater and in elementary school he was enthusiastic about Science and Social Studies. Mr. Ravani shared: "I left a life of professional acting to make a more significant and positive impact on the world. I figured the best way to do that was to use my experience in the theater to provide young people with the skills of collaboration and cooperation.” Outside of work, Mr. Ravani enjoys camping, gardening, traveling, and cooking.
Email: aravani@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Daniel is enjoying in her 10th year at SRCSA and has been teaching since 1996 with Santa Rosa City Schools. She teaches all grades Classroom Music as well as String Orchestra (violin, viola, cello and bass) for the middle schoolers. Ms. Daniel, who is a Santa Rosa native, also loves teaching musical theater and working with other teachers to integrate music into many subjects. Outside of work, she volunteers at a local animal shelter and local food pantries. Her family includes her daughter Sara who resides in Massachusetts, and her son Carter of Humboldt County, as well as her husband, Mr. Daniel, a 6th grade Math and Science teacher in Windsor.
Email: rdaniel@srcs.k12.ca.us
Ms. Pawek has taught at SRCSA for 10 years and has been teaching for 25 years overall. She loves all art forms but of course dance is her favorite! When she was in school, Ms. Pawek loves “doing anything social” especially school dances! Ms. Pawek loves to dance, so she says that she is passionate about her job. “I love it when students get excited about learning in the dance room. When they experience the joy of movement and the art of dance.” Outside of school, Ms. Pawek likes to spend time with family and friends.
Email: spawek@srcs.k12.ca.us
Mike Milbrath has been teaching in the Santa Rosa City School District for 34 Years. The first 27 years were spent as the full time Choir/Drama, and eventually, Band Director at Piner High School. Somewhere in those 27 years he also spent 7 years as a part time Administrator. Then after retiring in August of 2019, he received a call asking if he wanted to teach at the Santa Rosa Charter School of the Arts as its Band Director. Given that he lives in Sonoma County and has a mortgage, he decided it was both enticing and budget wise to accept the position and over the 7 years at SRCSA he has loved engaging with this wonderful community of teachers and families.
In the distant past, he was born and raised in Minnesota and spent 15 years as a struggling performance artist in Minneapolis and NYC where he found artistic success, if not financial success.
As a starving artist he supported himself by lifeguarding, school bus driving, carpentry, house painting, chauffeur, bartender, dance teacher, and stage manager. He once counted how many side gigs he's had and stopped at 37.
As a teacher in Santa Rosa he has been nominated 4 times for “Teacher of the Year” by the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce and the California League of High Schools and the California League of Middle Schools.
He lives in Santa Rosa with his artist/wife of 36 years, Ulla Norup Milbrath, and has a 30 year old Daughter Rowyn, who lives in Sebastopol.
Ms. Hofmann is beginning her third year as SRCSA’s RSP teacher, but she has been an active SRCSA parents for many years and has been teaching for 9 years. She loves all forms of artistic expression. When she was a student herself, she enjoyed language arts, history, art, music and science. What Ms. Hofmann enjoys most about teaching is “working with students getting to know them as individuals and forming meaningful relationships with them.” Outside of work, she loves to practice Yoga, be in nature, spend time with her family, traveling, and cooking.
Email: hhofmann@srcs.k12.ca.us
Nadia Talbot
Office Mgr.
Bianca Hamiter
Health Tech
Angela Bonner
School Psychologist
Saitip Khanchalern
Restorative Specialist
John Fortunati
Head Custodian
Jesus Corpa Perez
Night Custodian
Jennifer Toscano
Instructional Aid
Hanna Schweitz
Instructional Aid
Briana Wilson
RSP Asst. + Yard Supervisor
Liza Curtis
TK Assistant
Stasha McIntosh
Lead Yard Supervisor
Cynthia Parkhill
Liberian + Yard Supervisor
Carina Bitanga
Yard Supervisor + KinderCare
Alyssa Molina
Student Safety Advisor
Patricia Zarazoga
Family Engagement
