Pajaro Valley Unified School District Chief Business Officer Jenny Im has submitted her resignation letter to the district, Superintendent Heather Contreras confirmed Saturday.
Im’s resignation comes after several contentious public meetings during which the board directly questioned the district’s financial management.
Reached by text, Im declined to comment.
The district will have to find a new CBO at a time when it is facing several budgetary challenges, including a looming economic recession and declining enrollment, both of which will likely require the board to make numerous reductions.
“Jenny’s resignation is a huge loss to our district and her position will be very hard to fill,” Contreras said Saturday. “It has been a great honor for PVUSD leadership to work alongside Jenny.”
Contreras added that Im has been working both in her role and as Director of Finance, a position that has not been filled in 10 months.
“Jenny has been filling the roles of both the vacant director of finance as well as the CBO for the last ten months, which speaks volumes to her work ethic and dedication to PVUSD,” Contreras said.
“The combination of challenging working circumstances across several areas culminated in the decision to resign,” she said.
Im will stay through the budget development process for the 2025-26 school year, which lasts through June, she said.
Board President Olivia Flores had praise for Im’s financial acumen.
“When Jenny Im came to us as the Director of Finance my eyes were opened,” she stated in an email. “Her way of explaining very complex accounting systems made it easier for me to understand our budget.
Im was director of finance when she was asked to step in to fill the vacant CBO role, Flores said, a decision the district did not regret.
“We have had the position of Director of Finance open for months now. Jenny has been working the position of two jobs because she cares about our students and this district,” she said. “However, when she is unable to do what she knows is right for our district, I do not blame her for needing to step away.”
It will be difficult, Flores said, to fill the position.
“CBOs are hard to come by, and great ones like Jenny are one in a million,” she said. “She will be missed but I hope wherever she finds herself in her next endeavor she is treated with the kindness and gratitude she deserves.”
Trustee Gabe Medina, who has frequently questioned Im during the board meetings, said he appreciates the work she has done for the district, and said he wishes her the best moving forward.
“At the same time, I have a responsibility to listen to my constituents, many of whom have felt neglected—whether it’s inadequate facilities or the lack of effort to hire more Maintenance and Operations personnel,” he said. “Asking tough questions is part of accountability, not personal criticism. If those questions were perceived otherwise, that’s unfortunate.”
“I do wish she would issue an apology to my constituents for putting their needs on the back burner and for not ensuring that our schools, especially in Monterey County, were fully prepared for our staff and students,” Medina said. “My priority remains advocating for the community and ensuring that these issues are addressed.”
Board Vice-President Misty Navarro predicted Im’s departure during the Feb. 25 meeting, which was marked by infighting among board members and strong criticism of the district cabinet.
Navarro said she is willing to take direction from the district’s budget office, and said on Saturday that she understands Im’s reason for departing.
“When we as a board do not take the recommendations of experts, who know far more than we do about the nuts and bolts of finances, then we fail as a board,” she said. “It would be career suicide for anybody to preside over a district that’s heading towards bankruptcy.
“She has been working diligently to try to come up with ways to make us fiscally solvent and explained it numerous times and in very clear ways, and still we couldn’t hear her.”
The PVUSD Board of Trustees will meet Wednesday at 6pm in the Watsonville City Council Chambers at City Council at 275 Main Street.
While Im’s resignation is not on the agenda, the board will discuss closing Pacific Coast Charter School.
The district says that the school “is not meeting the essential requirements to continue as a Charter School in PVUSD.”
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This story has been updated to include comments from PVUSD Board Vice-President Misty Navarro.
I am APPALLED at Trustee Medina’s comments. I watched the livestream of the February 25 meeting where he verbally attacked Ms. Im, and did not think his behavior could get worse.
His comments here are a further blow and only show his inability to accept responsibility for his actions. Instead he diverts blame to Ms. Im for a situation that was not created by her.
Take your anger somewhere else. Take off your activist hat and do your role as a Board Trustee by aligning with your purpose- it’s not attacking and sinking the ship you swore to protect.
Agreed JR. Trustee Medina displayed classic bully behavior throughout the meeting. He masks his verbal assaults under the guise of “listening to his constituents.” What is best for his constituents is what is best for his students within his district, and what is best for the district is having the best people throughout our district. The fact is, there is no way the district will be able to hire nearly as qualified of a person, and Medina verbal attacks are responsible for weakening our district.
Medina’s approach to budget management are laughable and short sighted. In the meeting he proposed switching converting standard lightbulbs to LED as a way to reconcile our massive budget shortfalls, one of his many listed solutions (while sure, not a bad idea, doesn’t come close to addressing our massive budget shortfall).
What he fails to understand is what true collaboration and working within community means. The Board should be working alongside our hardworking district team. In hard financial times like this, its important for a board and district to show unity as a presentation of strength, showing collobartive decision making. Medina appears to be to more interested in verbal attacks and seeking gotcha moments than actually doing what is best for the students he represents. These are incredibly tough decisions that no one willingly wants to make, but it is the responsibility of a district and our board to make tough decisions.
And when faced with a decision to make a tough decision to benefit our district and our students in the long-term with sound financial future planning, Medina shrunk to the occasion, bullied fellow board members and district admin and his incredibly aggressive and abrasive behavior let to the firing of one of the bright stars of our district.
Would love to hear from Medina how this resignation “benefits his constituents.”
OK Watsonville geniuses, let’s see if you’ll put your money where your mouth is – If you claim that the district’s finance and operation are being poorly run, please step up with your credentials in hand and let’s see your solutions! Also, please be sitting when you’re told what you will be paid for the job. Report back please!!!
This is such a huge loss for the district. Jenny Im guided PVUSD with clarity, expertise, composure and grace. Thank you for your leadership during a time when the district needed to make very hard decisions. I watched all the sustainable budget committee meetings and felt like they were informative and innovative in getting community input. I think the district’s approach was thoughtfully done. Having said that, all cuts are painful – there is no way around that. Jenny, please know that you are seen and appreciated by many in our district.
Medina needs to double up on his meds. He has enthusiasm but the way he communicates is a big problem.
Trustee Medina believes he can evade accountability for his rudeness, misogyny, and ignorance of school district operations by hiding behind his skin color and weaponizing his mental health conditions.
He denied a student teacher a job because she is Christian, told Jenny Im she needed to be disciplined, questioned Claudia Monjaras’s intelligence, and delegitimized Misty Navarro’s seat on the board—all attacks on women.
Ms. Im’s departure is a significant loss; she was a fantastic CBO.
Medina and Carrasco are PVFT plants, present to disrupt and act as their mouthpiece.
PVFT leadership has misled its members by downplaying the district’s financial crisis and offering no solutions for declining enrollment and chronic absenteeism. They must all moonlight as demographers and know where 2,000 upcoming kindergarteners are hiding.
Failed artist and PVFT members have circulated a google doc filled with misinformation about music and arts funding. citing unsettled lawsuits and bad faith interpretations of school finances as facts.
PVFT members exploit their students, using them as shields and offering extra credit to coerce their participation in board meetings, I’m sure this violates the education code.
California is a right to work state for public workers, teachers, give yourselves a $500+ raise by cancelling your PVFT membership. Stop paying Nelly and Brandon to destroy the district.
So, I know Nelly pretty well from her time at Pajaro Middle, and all I have to say is she’s a radical leftist lunatic built in the same vein as AOC. These liberal nutjobs think money just grows on trees, and that running massive deficits will be ok thanks to a bird brain idea called modern monetary theory. I remember talking to Nelly a few years ago, and she was all for draining the general fund to pay teachers more money. Look, I get it, teachers are underpaid. But, would you rather have underpaid teachers, or NO teachers, because the district gets taken over the State of CA and hard decisions will have to be made.
Medina needs to be recalled. And a vote of no confidence should be looked into against PVFT’s leadership. The district needs to strip down all non-essentials and go back to the basics. It will save a ton of money. For example, why are we still giving all the kids chromebooks when other districts are putting them back into carts? Districts are now exploring banning smart phone use in the classroom and going back to pen and paper, and here we are trying to get these kids to learn how to code when they can barely learn how to read.