On Monday, March 2, Sonoma Academy was faced with a shocking and mysterious event. Students arrived in the classroom of beloved Humanities teacher Brandon Spars to find it emptied out. Spars himself was nowhere to be found.
Since that morning, rumors and half-truths have spread across campus like wildfire in his absence.
This article is meant to serve as a record of the events that took place, in relation to Spars, in the first week of March. A second part, honoring Spars and his impact, will come soon.
Tuesday, Feb 24:
Spars gave one of his advisees, Juliette Coté (‘26), a bundle of handwritten notes. He instructed her to pass them out to the rest of the advisory members on Friday. Coté said they were “little note cards,” with “a really sweet message.” Hers specifically was about “how [her] humor helps the world,” and she “really liked it. It was short and sweet and… in a beautiful card. Everyone in the advisory got one.” But they were confused as well: “We’re like, what is this for?”
Friday, Feb 27:
Spars informed a few teachers that it was his last day on campus.
Saturday/Sunday, Feb 28 & March 1:
At some point over the weekend, likely on Sunday, Spars came to campus and cleared out his classroom, removing the books, paintings, masks and maps that are instantly recognizable to any past Spars student. What remained was a shell of a formerly iconic room.
He also informed the Sonoma Academy Administration that he was calling in sick for the week. Head of School Percy Abram didn’t comment on any other communications between the school and Spars that night, but Admin did have enough of a reason to call an emergency Staffulty meeting.
At around 8:45 PM on Sunday, an email was circulated among the staff, as Humanities teacher David Hyde remembered, “requesting that we come in early on Monday morning, and that there’s information to be shared.”
Monday, March 2:
Staffulty arrived at the meeting at 8:00 AM. Abram addressed the group, and according to Hyde, “he was like, I’m just going to tell you the facts. So he shared what he saw as the relevant facts that he could share with us.”
Those facts were simple and few: Spars had called in sick for the week and cleaned out his classroom. But he was still an employee of Sonoma Academy, Abram stressed. As for any more detail, “the administration wouldn’t really elaborate on if they were anticipating [Spars’ departure], or if they had more information. They basically said for the privacy of Brandon and the school, they couldn’t really go into more on that.”
Instead, the conversation “was really about how do we show up for our students? How do we help the whole community navigate this uncertainty without adding to the speculation or contributing to rumors when we just don’t have the information?”
The mood in the room was “solemn.” Staff members “were hesitant to speak up and ask questions, although some teachers did.” Overall, “people were just a little shaken,” and “had more questions that couldn’t be answered.”
Soon enough, the school day began, students arrived, and freshmen in their Humanities I class made their way to the far end of campus to Spars’ room, as usual. But they were met with a bare classroom and no teacher to be seen, with the large Africa wall sticker as the only remaining remnant of Spars.
The next period’s class, AS African Studies, is a class of mostly upperclassmen students. They faced the same predicament. Mateo Elliott (‘26) recalled that “the vibe was literally just pure confusion.” As they entered the classroom, they “knew something was up.”
Eventually, Humanities Dean Drew Gloger came into the classroom and gave a brief explanation—the same one he’d received just a few hours prior. He said that Spars has called in sick for the week and would not be teaching class. As Elliott put it, “That’s all Drew knew, as far as I know, and at that point that’s all anyone knew.”
Word quickly spread on campus about Spars’ disappearance. Students began circulating through his classroom, marvelling at the formerly decadent classroom now devoid of personality. Many became emotional, remembering the impact Spars had on them. Staffulty and Admin visited as well; Director of External Relations Kim Eber was brought to tears.
Some students went straight to Abram’s office, hoping to question him. He wasn’t present, however, so students instead wrote messages on index cards and scattered them atop a small table. They asked for transparency and expressed both sadness and frustration about the evolving situation.
This confusion remained throughout the day. Lacking an administrative statement, students turned to their teachers, but they knew just as little. Planned lessons across campus turned into discussions about Spars’ impact and legacy.
In these classes, as a teacher recalled, “there was a mix of emotions. Some students were just mad. Some students were just kind of confused. Some students were really sad.” But across the board, “there was a degree of disappointment in both the fact that Brandon was no longer going to be teaching here and also just disappointment in how and why more information couldn’t be shared.”
Students had a lot of questions that teachers could not answer. Rumors swirled, but there were too many missing pieces of information for anyone to fully understand the situation.
Three students, Elijah Borjon (‘26), Maddie Castro (‘26) and Elian Diaz-Zepeda (‘26) went into Abram’s office later that day, according to Borjon, at “4:00 PM, right after school ended.” Abram was there, and they were able to have a conversation with him.
Abram, as Borjon tells it, said to the trio, “that it’s not ethical to discuss someone’s employment, but as of now, Brandon is still employed at SA.” As for his demeanor, “Percy seemed very unaware about what had happened. Like, he’s just as confused as us.”
Most students and staff left school in the same state of confusion. Some reached out to Spars directly, but he didn’t respond.
Tuesday, March 3:
Classes continued to be overtaken by conversations about Spars. A puppeteer performance provided a brief respite to the community, but the campus still seemed gloomier. Students were feeling a wide-ranging variety of emotions.
For others, the saddest part was how their time with Spars ended. Coté said, “there wasn’t any chance for us to say goodbye. We didn’t get a whole good going-away party. We didn’t even get to see him standing in front of the school.”
Finally, at 9:01 PM on Tuesday night Abram sent an email to the entire school. Leading with the subject “Staffulty Transition, March 3, 2026,” he wrote that “Brandon Spars informed me of his decision to resign his position at Sonoma Academy effective today. We appreciate his twenty-four years of service to the school and the many contributions he has made to our community.” Abram then went on to share a short statement from Spars himself, included in full:
“I have been able to work with more than a thousand bright, kind, and compassionate young people who are now striving to make the world a better place, and my colleagues at Sonoma Academy are among the best friends I have ever had. I was given a rare opportunity to learn and grow that I know I would not have found anywhere else. I truly feel lucky to have had twenty-four years of Sonoma Academy in my life.”
The email concluded with a note about the school’s future plans: “We will begin an immediate search for both short-term and long-term coverage.”
It provided confirmation of what many students and staff had already assumed: Spars was not just taking a week-long break. He would not be returning to Sonoma Academy.
Wednesday, March 4:
Wednesday began with more of the same. While there was slightly more clarity, the focus of continued schoolwide confusion had shifted to why Spars decided to resign. Everyone had a theory. Teachers did their best to rein in the more extreme theories, but in such an information vacuum, it was difficult for students to resist scandalizing his departure.
Leading into that day’s Community Meeting, the student body was frustrated with the perceived lack of transparency and the continued ambiguity from the Administration. These sentiments worsened at CM, where a controversial ‘Body Neutrality’ speaker gave an inciting presentation (a whole other topic). The crowd of students was rancorous, and following the previous speaker would’ve been a difficult task for anyone.
Thus, as Abram walked to the podium, the crowd began to murmur. Going into CM, students had tentatively hoped for an administrative statement, but such a moment had seemed unlikely.
Abram’s speech, however, didn’t help to clear the fog of confusion that had fallen over campus. He addressed Spars’ resignation dead-on, but didn’t reveal any new details, citing privacy concerns. The speech then shifted into a discussion about his goals for the school’s future, something most students weren’t interested in hearing about. This discontent became clear shortly after.
As students know, Sonoma Academy has a tradition of giving a standing ovation after every Senior Speech. Along with that, it’s also traditional to give ovations to other powerful or monumental orations. At the very least, almost every time someone leaves the podium, there’s a round of applause.
But after this address, claps were sparse. A large group of mostly upperclassmen students had previously agreed that if Abram did come up to the podium, they wouldn’t applaud once he concluded as a form of protest. Thus, the typical applause was strangely muted, and most students filed out quietly to lunch.
That period, and the rest of the afternoon, went similarly to the previous days. Rumors ran rampant, and discussion was still present in classrooms across campus. Abram’s address hadn’t served to placate the discourse nor illuminate new information.
Thursday, March 5, and beyond:
Thursday continued the pattern, but it also marked the beginning of a new theme. Since the 5th, the school hasn’t released any official correspondence giving any more details about the Spars situation. Abram sent out another email reflecting “on the past week, a week that felt anything but routine.” However, despite the conciliatory, moving-forward-together tone, the email didn’t add anything of note to the little information the student body holds.
Logistically, the school has figured out at least temporary substitutes for Spars’ classes. Debate teacher Alyssa Lucas-Bolin took over his Humanities I periods, and his Personal Storytelling Coyote Block, and Humanities teachers Drew Gloger and Sourosh Amani teamed up to finish out his AS African Studies class.
Overall, the saga was one that won’t be soon forgotten. The murmurs have died down since the week-long peak, but campus hasn’t felt the same since the shocking resignation. But now, focus has shifted to honoring Spars; posters have appeared around the school with an email address ([email protected]) where students can send letters of gratitude to the teacher who has meant so much to them.
Perhaps someday more information will come to light, or maybe Spars will return to campus. Until then, unfortunately, we’ll have to sit in the frustration of not knowing.
