Will PVUSD teachers go on strike?
To the Editor,
One year. Still here. It is unbelievable that our Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) Board of Trustees and our Superintendent, Dr. Rodriguez, have decided to not compromise with the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers and negotiate a pay raise on the teacher salary schedule. They have the money, $50 million to be exact. What are they saving it for?
I thought when our new superintendent came to our district, that things would be different. Wow! Are they different … and not in a positive way. The Board of Trustees and Dr. Rodriguez have decided that the teachers who teach here are not worthy of a pay raise. By not giving teachers a raise on the pay scale, experienced and seasonal teachers have left the district. New teachers come and are trained only to leave a year later to other districts that pay more. Both certificated and classified employees are leaving and retiring in record numbers this year. Employees in PVUSD are not happy.
As teachers, we have committed our lives to educate the younger generation. We work 110 percent for our students. Dr. Rodriguez and the PVUSD Board of Trustees are beginning to forever change the education landscape of our community. The field of teaching and the number of certificated teachers are dwindling in large numbers here in Watsonville. If you don’t know already, there is a severe teacher shortage in California and across the nation. If you have children in this community, you should really be concerned.
There is a calm before the storm. We are at impasse. One year. Still here … but maybe for many of us — not for long.
Kim Saldavia
PVUSD Teacher
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Send the squatters back home
To the Editor,
The San Lorenzo Park bench lands homeless camp is an embarrassment to the City of Santa Cruz, to the State of California, to the nation and the world. Even more embarrassing is that the city is facilitating these individuals who don’t seem to be looking for employment or putting themselves in an overall healthier situation. All I see is squatters looking to score drugs, or looking for trouble. These are my observations.
Now I’ve read news the camp will soon be relocated to 1220 River St. in Santa Cruz. I believe I have a solution to the problem. It would not be about shuffling homeless camp residents to various temporary areas in Santa Cruz. It would be about moving them out of town permanently.
Thomas Wolfe wrote a book, “You Can’t Go Home Again.” A character in the story was told that if you have been away from home a long time, you could go back home again, but don’t expect it to be the same. More often than naught you might end up wishing you never went back. My solution to the San Lorenzo Park homeless whatever-they-are’s is that they be sent home again. To a place familiar to them. Be it their hometown, or another place, other than Santa Cruz, where they can reconnect with either family or friends in that town. The City of Santa Cruz would provide one-way transportation — air or ground — to whatever destination each and every one of these homeless squatters wished to go to. The squatters would also be provided with a check for $2,000 to be used in helping them settle themselves “back home again.”
It is Santa Cruz that created the San Lorenzo Park homeless camp. Santa Cruz has become a magnet for drifters from all over the country. Santa Cruz and its partying mystique is a magnet for those thirsty for meth, dope, heroin and all kinds of perverted activity. Like San Francisco, a Sodom and Gomorrah, only smaller. I only work in Santa Cruz, and thank God I do not live there. And where I live there are similar problems but not to the magnitude it is in Santa Cruz. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard the sentiment, “I’ve got to get out of Santa Cruz. All my problems began when I moved there.” Sending the squatters back home might be an answer.
Charles Birimisa
Watsonville
