WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Karen Osmundson has held her Area III seat since 2004, and has survived challenges in four elections and garnered support of educators districtwide.
But this year will mark the end of her tenure.
While she said she plans to remain active in the education community, Osmundson said she is looking to retire and, hopefully, travel the world.
“I’m not young anymore,” she said.
As a school board member, Osmundson has served on the Migrant Head Start Committee, the District English Learner Advisory Committee and the Migrant Parent Advisory Committee.
She says her fluency in Spanish—which she picked up during a stint in Nicaragua as a Peace Corps volunteer—made her participation in those committees a natural choice.
Osmundson said she decided to run for the seat after several teachers said they wanted to replace Trustee Dan Hankemeier, who was advocating for the separation of Aptos area schools from the district.
Osmundson, along with several district educators, opposed that controversial proposal, which drove a wedge between the northern and southern parts of the district and caused a rift that remains today.
But her decision, she says, was cemented by her desire to help young people.
“I’ve loved knowing that I’m benefiting students, number one, and that I’m also benefiting teachers and also classified staff as well,” she said.
After she finished her time in the Peace Corps, Osmundson said she hopped on a boat and took it to Chile, from where she continued to travel.
She returned to the United States and settled in the Watsonville area, where her sister lived. She then got a job with the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County, where she worked with the Buena Vista Migrant Camp.
During her time on the board, Osmundson said she is proud of crafting a rule that allows parents to opt out of military recruitments for their children, and helping build a budget during the 2008 recession that kept as many cuts and layoffs away from the classroom as possible.
“We tried to make it so that not many employees would be laid off,” she said.
She said she has also worked to slow PVUSD’s expulsion rates by looking to districts that have slowed their own rates. In addition, she has spent the majority of her time on the board trying to return art and music programs to the classroom.
Osmundson said she is proud of having had a hand in hiring Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez.
Oscar Soto and Amanda Hernandez have both pulled their papers to run for Osmundson’s seat.
