Letters to the Editor

PVUSD cuts necessary The Pajaro Valley Unified School District is finally being forced to face financial reality. Many of the positions now being eliminated were funded by one-time Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which expired in February 2024. That temporary COVID money...

Who Really Saved Watsonville Community Hospital Tony Nunez’s claim that he “saved” Watsonville Community Hospital is simply not credible. The hospital remains in a fragile financial position, with tens of millions in debt and ongoing concerns raised in a recent audit presented to the Pajaro Valley...

PVUSD board was right to make cuts when they did Brandon Diniz has written an impassioned guest Sentinel editorial; but he left out details on why the expediency, the reason for the cutbacks, and the continual disruption. The District is required to submit their proposed budget...

Keeping our eye on the Clock My father, an Air Force fighter pilot, and our family, were stationed in Yokohama Japan in 1947 as part of the post-World War II occupation force. Fortunately, I was too young to understand the magnitude of the complete obliteration...

Response to "The Tragic Loss of Charlie Kirk" (Sept. 12-18) While I agree that this senseless act of violence was both tragic and unacceptable, there seems to be some confusion about the character of Charlie Kirk.  Kirk was a racist and often attacked the transgender...

Board should reconsider BESS decision The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors failed their duty to protect the safety of first responders and the general public on June 30 with their decision to not move forward with codifying a battery energy storage system (BESS) ordinance....

 Prop. 50 stifles diverse voices California’s Proposition 50, on the November ballot, shamelessly deepens voter disenfranchisement. With 52 congressional districts and voters split at 45.3% Democrat, 25.2% Republican, and 22.3% Independent, California’s representation should reflect this diversity. Yet, only 9 of 52 House seats are...

At the Feb. 11 PVUSD Board meeting, trustee Gabe Medina was banned from the PV High campus for 14 days. It was a great example of deflecting the charges to blaming others for not doing enough, a practice that trustee Medina has done for...

Human cost of pesticides should be considered The Pajaro Valley Unified School District from 2017-2023 had a total of 14,486,224 pounds of pesticides applied in its boundaries—more than any other school district on the California coast or Salinas Valley. During the same 7-year period, PVUSD had...