Time for a change
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees rightfully denied a bill for legal services hired solely, against Board Policy, by Georgia Acosta. Knowing the board has its own attorney (separate from PVUSD), she hired outside attorneys without authority to further her agenda of firing the Superintendent. Acosta engineered this around incomplete financial reporting and then tried to suppress the County Office of Education correspondence which contradicted her actions by making staff remove it from the PVUSD website.
She has eroded trust of board members, PVUSD employees, and community members and done irreparable harm. Board members are called Trustees as the community must trust that the Board is furthering the interests of the students and community whom they represent. She has harmed the Board and impaired its ability to function which hampers its future success. She should resign so that trust can be re-established. If she chooses not to, the community must move to recall her.
Jane Royer Barr, Former PVUSD Trustee & COE TrusteeÂ
Acosta must resign
Trustee Georgia Acosta is not living up to her obligations as Trustee of Pajaro Valley Unified School District. She is receiving her $500 per month stipend and fully covered health insurance yet regularly misses board meetings and does not participate in committees and meetings with the superintendent. She has created mistrust, attempted to prevent community members from voicing opinions at meetings, violated district bylaws, and incurred costs without authority.
If she will not resign, the board should censure her and vote not to pay her monthly $500 payment and not to provide her with health coverage. If any district employee simply did not show up for work, how long would they receive pay and health insurance?
Area 2 deserves representation, which is currently non-existent.
Carol Turley, PVUSD Area 2 resident
Watsonville High mural deserves another look
Upon seeing the mural being created in the Watsonville High School cafeteria I was somewhat taken aback by the subject matter. From the sketches it appears to be composed of both Aztec and Mayan culture, warriors and symbolism. Both the Mayans and Aztecs were fierce warriors who captured their enemies for the purpose of human sacrifice and/or as slaves. In the Mayan culture human sacrifice was a ritual offering of nourishment to the gods with blood being the nourishment. The methods used were extremely brutal. Going on from there, the Aztecs were no less if not more, brutally capturing the enemy to be used as slaves and human sacrifice. The eagle symbolized the sun god, who needed human sacrifice for nourishment, and the Jaguar symbolized the Jaguar warriors who believed they partly imbibed the strength of the Jaguar in battle.
It amazes me that a bust of George Washington, a revolutionary war hero and father of our country, was found to be unacceptable by a few and removed because the culture of the time accepted slave ownership. Washington treated his slaves well and freed them upon his death. The Mayans and Aztecs treated slaves brutally and ritually used them as a human sacrifice to satisfy the gods.
I would suggest that those who object to Washington, look to the historic brutality of the Mayan and Aztec culture depicted in the school mural, as well as, other drawings, paintings and murals of Mayans and Aztecs within the city of Watsonville. Perhaps we should all accept that we cannot change history, but accept what was the culture/custom of the time and strive to do better as we move forward as a society, creating new history.
Judy Doering Nielsen, Watsonville
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