WATSONVILLE — Joe Dominguez, Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s new Chief Business Officer, took the financial helm of Santa Cruz County’s largest district Monday.
He will oversee PVUSD’s $250 million budget, which covers 35 schools in addition to the Towers administration building.
Meanwhile, Allison Niizawa, who recently left her principal post at Pajaro Valley High School, now has a leadership role in the district’s Human Resources Department.
Dominguez was one of seven siblings, all of whom were raised by farmworker parents who valued education and pushed their children to finish public school and attend college.
“We’re definitely proud products of the public education system,” he said.
His father, who migrated from Guanajuaca, Mexico, met his mother in Texas. The couple then led the lives of migrant farmworkers as they built their family, eventually putting down their roots in Fresno.
“Pretty much every sister and brother was born in a different state,” he said.
Dominguez attended Fresno State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in management and his MBA.
He worked for a time in the private healthcare sector before heeding the advice of a colleague to seek a career with a school district.
After earning his certification to work in school finance, he joined Adelanto Elementary School District as the assistant CBO.
He then went to Inglewood Unified School District, where he successfully eliminated an $18 million structural deficit.
Dominguez said he did so by reducing expenditures, imposing budget cuts and generating additional revenue.
He called those efforts a “hands-on, roll-up-the-sleeves” opportunity.
“That was probably the highlight of my career but also the biggest challenge,” he said.
From there, Dominguez went to Oakland Unified School District, where he oversaw a $650 million bond program that funded new construction and modernization of additional classrooms, and projects such as energy efficient heating, lighting and solar upgrades.
Dominguez comes to PVUSD at a time when the district shows a projected $46 million ending fund balance this year, but is still deficit spending. A budget report approved by the board of trustees on March 14 shows expenditures outweighing revenues by $3.36 million in the 2019-20 school year.
“One of the first things I will be focused on is looking at where we’re deficit spending, and digging in deeper from a holistic point of view and looking at what’s causing it,” he said.
In addition, the district is locked in tense contract negotiations for the 2016-17 school year with its teacher’s union.
The teachers are asking for a salary increase retroactive to that year, and to support their request, the teachers point to the district’s high ending fund balance, and its historic habit of understating that balance in budget projections.
The district, meanwhile, says that giving the teachers all their demands would put PVUSD in the red within three years.
With the fact-finding phase of negotiations soon to begin, Dominguez said he plans to keep his office as open as possible.
“What I’m committed to is to provide fiscal transparency, clear communications and fiscal accountability,” he said. “The books are open.”
With no financial reductions on the horizon, Dominguez remains optimistic that the California budget revise in May from Gov. Jerry Brown will bring additional revenue.
“We’re all on the edge of our seats to find what that looks like,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see some good news.”
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Allison Niizawa became principal of Pajaro Valley High School in 2014, but was at the school since it opened in 2004.
She began as a physical education instructor, and also served in administrative guidance counseling and as a curriculum instructor.
She started as PVUSD’s Director of Human Resources for Certificated Staff about two weeks ago.
“I’m excited, but I’m also super sad,” she said of the move to administration. “I’ve been at PV High for 14 years. I started my career there.”
Niizawa said she is excited about the opportunities for professional growth the new position will offer.
“Change is a good thing,” she said. “I’m going to take what I’ve learned over the past 14 years and apply it on a bigger scale.”
She explained that the myriad responsibilities required of her leadership role at PVHS — interacting with parents, staff, teachers and students — was perfect experience for her role in Human Resources.
“Running a high school is like running a small community,” she said. “You’re dealing with a lot of different things.”
The district is currently looking for a new principal for PVHS. District officials hope to have a replacement by the end of April, Niizawa said.
