When we silence teachers, we teach fear instead of freedom
There are moments in a community’s life when silence is not neutral. It is a decision.
This is one of those moments in Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
Our Board of Trustees is preparing to approve revisions to Policy 6144 - the so-called “Controversial Issues” policy....
Reject Georgia Acosta for Watsonville Planning Commission
Editor’s note: This letter was written to the Watsonville City Council.
We are Pajaro Valley for Ethnic Studies and Justice (PVESJ), a local grassroots coalition that has been organizing students, teachers, and community members at PVUSD for almost two years.
In last November’s election, our group...
Letters to the Editor, Oct. 9
How do we reform a broken system?
“The land of the free and the home of the brave”...a validation of America and its resemblance. Yet we are free no more; politically bonded to our nation’s injustice is considered a free world. Through the oppressors; the...
Letters to the Editor, Aug. 22: Time for Confederate monuments to come down
Letters to the Editor, Aug. 22, 2017
Wrapping up my tenure as Mayor
By Rebecca J. Garcia
The role of a Mayor is to provide leadership in the adoption of policy. Policy is a law, regulation or procedure that provides direction to better serve the community. I was excited to provide leadership as Mayor of Watsonville. I identified...
Navigating Watsonville’s skeptics
By John Flaherty, vice-chair of Navigator Schools’ Board of Directors
Sharon Waller, the co-founder of Navigator public, nonprofit charter schools, grew up in Watsonville. Her grandmother worked at Ford’s Department store. She took Sharon to lunch next door at the Woolworths.
Sharon Waller is a third-generation...
Letters to the Editor, Dec. 3
Save our hospital
I want to give heartfelt thanks to Mimi Hall and all the other individuals and organizations that are working to save our Watsonville Community Hospital by converting it to a District hospital. Bravo. That would be the next best thing to reviving...
Hospital fundraising nears the finish line
In Santa Cruz County, keeping our communities healthy is a collaborative effort by many health care service providers, and Watsonville Community Hospital is an essential piece of that puzzle.
For several months now, Watsonville Community Hospital has been teetering on the verge of closure and...
Mr. City Manager, please answer these questions
By JOHN MENKE, Hyde Street Neighborhood Association Representative
On Sept. 25, I emailed you a letter discussing the proposed Hilton Hotel at 1 Western Drive. Excerpts from that letter subsequently appeared in the Oct. 4 issue of The Pajaronian as an “open letter’’ to you....
Letters to the Editor, Oct. 30
Orozco is the best candidate
As a lifelong citizen of Watsonville and a veteran teacher of more than 30 years in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, I encourage our local voters to vote for Maria Orozco for the seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified...
Students learn the power of the vote at Civics Summit
On Friday, about 150 high school juniors from across Santa Cruz County cast their first ballots on three issues that, if passed, would dramatically...


















