Curt Wilcox says he is running for a seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees with a lifetime of experience as a working-class businessman and father, though he acknowledged he has never attended a district board meeting and has not yet studied the issues facing the district.
Wilcox, 65, who is retired after a career in auto glass, construction and general building work, said his experience with public education comes primarily from his own schooling and that of his sons.
He described himself as ambitious and entrepreneurial from an early age, working while attending school and pursuing an interest in motorcycle racing. Asked what leadership qualities he would bring to the board, Wilcox said he has generally thought independently.
“I guess I’ve always been trying to think my own way, and it’s always seemed to work out okay,” he said.
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Wilcox said he has not previously served on an elected body. He also said he has not attended a PVUSD board meeting and has not researched the district’s current challenges.
“I’m looking forward to getting involved in the procedures with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District and see what we can do to improve upon what’s already in place,” he said.
Wilcox currently resides in Shasta County but said he plans to move to Santa Cruz County. He said he is currently using his father’s District 5 address as his mailing address.
His candidacy also raises questions about a criminal history that includes a prison sentence stemming from a 2017 confrontation with his daughter-in-law, Brooke Wilcox.
Brooke told The Pajaronian that Wilcox attacked her with a stun gun as she and her children were preparing to leave property where her family had been living. She said he shocked her repeatedly, causing her to lose consciousness, and that she suffered a broken foot during the confrontation.
Brooke said the attack followed years of conflict after she and her husband, Wilcox’s son, moved onto Wilcox’s property on Fruitland Avenue in Royal Oaks in 2014. She alleged Wilcox drilled out locks, interfered with their electricity and repeatedly harassed the family.
Wilcox offered a sharply different account. He characterized his son and daughter-in-law as “squatters” who damaged his property and said the confrontation was an act of self-defense after previous altercations.
“I was convicted because it was self-defense after being beat up three times,” he said, acknowledging that he had a stun gun during the final confrontation.
Brooke disputed Wilcox’s description of the family as squatters. She said they had a five-year contract signed by Wilcox allowing them to live on the property and that she has receipts documenting tens of thousands of dollars the family spent improving it.
“There are no records anywhere that would say we were squatters,” she said.
In her earlier interview, Brooke said the family used its savings to build a home on the property after entering into an agreement with Wilcox that they would live there for five years, with the possibility of eventually purchasing the property. She said they received an eviction notice after completing the home.
Wilcox said he was nevertheless content to serve his prison sentence, describing incarceration as “a wonderful experience” that gave him time to read and participate in religious activities.
Brooke said she has a 10-year protective order prohibiting Wilcox from contacting her family. Wilcox said he was unaware of such an order.
Brooke also questioned whether Wilcox should be entrusted with decisions affecting children, pointing to his past experience as a foster parent. She alleged she witnessed Wilcox grab a foster child by the neck and hold him against a wall, after which she contacted Child Protective Services and the children were removed.
Wilcox denied grabbing a child by the neck. He said the foster children were ultimately removed from his home, but that he never learned the allegations against him. He described caring for several troubled children as overwhelming.
“My heart was in the right place,” he said, adding that he would not become a foster parent again without a partner to help care for the children.
Wilcox also addressed a previous incident in 2021 in which Watsonville police pursued him before he drove into a fire training facility and struck vehicles there.
Wilcox said he had been under significant stress at the time, including a difficult interaction with his boss the previous day and a lack of sleep. He acknowledged driving erratically, saying he was overwhelmed by work-related stress and grief over the deaths of family members and friends.
“The situation that led me to my erratic driving behavior” came after his boss had “mentally” pushed him “over the edge,” Wilcox said. He said he drove into the fire department training area and entered a vehicle that was going to be demolished.
Wilcox said he raised his hands and surrendered when officers confronted him, but that officers shot him with what he described as a “cork gun,” leaving a cut above his left eye. He said he was subsequently taken to a hospital.
Wilcox again attributed his behavior at the time to stress and unresolved grief rather than drugs, saying the accumulated deaths of people close to him had become overwhelming.
“Sometimes I’m just kind of beside myself,” he said.
Court records show that Wilcox was convicted in a separate Capitola case stemming from June 2023. The records show a conviction for resisting or deterring an officer, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor under Penal Code Section 17(b), as well as a vandalism charge listed in his sentencing records.
He was sentenced in January 2024 to 364 days in county jail, with the custody term deemed served after credit for time already served and conduct credit. He was also placed on two years of supervision, which was later modified to a conditional sentence.
As part of the sentence, Wilcox was ordered to stay away from 828 Bay Ave. in Capitola, not possess firearms or other dangerous weapons, complete an ACCESS evaluation and take all medications prescribed by mental health professionals. Court records also ordered him to pay $110 in restitution and submit to drug testing and searches.
Asked about his mental health history, Wilcox acknowledged receiving psychiatric treatment and said he was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, although he said the doctor who diagnosed him later told him he might have been misdiagnosed.
Wilcox instead attributed his struggles to grief over the deaths of family members and friends.
“If you want to call it mental illness or bipolar, that’s fine,” he said. “But it’s a mourning process of grieving people that have passed away.” He said he is not currently prescribed ongoing medication.
Despite the controversies surrounding his candidacy, Wilcox said voters should consider the breadth of his background.
“You would find few people that have more life experiences than myself,” he said.
