After 30 people demanded that the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees rescind a Dec. 11 decision to lay off 80 teachers and 78 school employees during their Wednesday night meeting, nearly 200 people who had packed the Watsonville City Council chambers walked out en masse to the community room next door, chanting, “Put students first.”
But not before union members presented a petition signed by 1,000 teachers, school employees and community members urging the board to undo the vote.
The demonstration prompted the board to briefly recess until the protesters left and the room cleared.
Pajaro Valley High School senior Eriberto Estrada, 17, said more than 180 students at Pajaro Valley High signed a separate petition to the board.
Elementary school teachers, special education staff and counselors, he said, are “the backbone of this district.”
“As a district, we’re underperforming and have a declining enrollment, and you’re going to cut the very spaces where students’ initial academic nourishment happens,” Estrada said.
“The cuts,” he said, “are robbing the most vulnerable students of the resources that they need.”
Amesti Elementary School science teacher Rachel Hitchcock asked trustees to reconsider the decision to eliminate all elementary school academic coordinators. The person who holds that role at her school, she said, plays a key role.
“Why would you take her away from us?” she said.
Rescinding the layoffs was not on the agenda, and trustees therefore did not discuss the issue or take action.
In the room next door, billed as a “night of civic engagement,” Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers President Brandon Diniz said the timing of the protest was critical, as the state-mandated March 15 deadline for sending layoff notices to teachers is approaching.
Diniz said teachers reserved the community room to give them a place to go after they marched out, where they watched the meeting on a video screen.
Board President Carol Turley cleared the room of spectators during meetings on Dec. 11 and Feb. 10 after attendees repeatedly shouted and disrupted proceedings.
“We wanted to have an alternative venue to participate in tonight’s board meeting where they don’t have to worry about the room being cleared, and sort of the way things are going,” Diniz said. “I think a lot of folks want a space to be able to come together and engage civically.”
In other action, trustees agreed to table a decision on updating board policy governing how the district responds to immigration enforcement after Trustee Gabe Medina asked for the language to be strengthened.
As written, officials cannot collect or disclose information about a student’s or family’s immigration status unless required by law or a judicial warrant. Immigration enforcement officers would not be allowed in nonpublic areas of campuses, school buses or district programs without a judicial warrant or court order. Students could not be interviewed, detained or searched for immigration enforcement purposes without parental consent or a valid judicial warrant. Parents or guardians would be promptly notified if immigration authorities request access to a student or records, unless prohibited by court order.
Medina expressed concern that the language was not strong enough, pointing out that the definition of “exigent circumstances” that would allow some immigration officers access to student data was not well defined.
As written, he said, the policy could allow a school administrator to treat an officer’s urgency as an emergency.
“Routine enforcement activity, time pressure, convenience or an administrative warrant are not ‘exigent circumstances,’” Medina said.
Medina also said the district’s legal counsel should sign off on the release of student and family information to immigration officials.
Medina’s motion to amend the policy and bring it back to a future meeting passed 4-1, with Trustee Olivia Flores dissenting and Misty Navarro abstaining. Trustee Daniel Dodge Jr. was absent.
