Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Misty Navarro was appointed to the board in October 2024, joining at a time when five of the seven members were new to elected office.
What followed was a steep learning curve, often marked by volatility, as members worked to learn how to collaborate and govern a district that includes 34 schools, roughly 16,000 students and thousands of employees.
Now, with her term set to end in November, Navarro said the board has largely coalesced around its mission to improve student outcomes, and she is seeking reelection.
She said that progress was reinforced Wednesday during a goals and guardrails workshop, where the board discussed effective meeting management.
“I feel like I kind of just started getting a handle on everything,” Navarro said. “And I feel like our work is just getting started.”
With a potential economic downturn, projected enrollment declines and the ongoing need to improve student achievement, Navarro said maintaining continuity on the board is critical.
“To have another big turnover of the board, I don’t think is the best thing for our district at this time,” she said. “I’ve decided that I’m not quite done yet. I don’t feel like I’ve done what I set out to do.”
Priorities
Navarro represents Trustee Area 7, which includes the Central Coast, La Selva Beach and Rio del Mar.
She said the district is focused on improving third-grade literacy, calling it a “pivotal time” for developing readers.
“And we only have up to go, really,” she said. “If you compare us to the Salinas area and their school district, they have a very similar population to us and they’re outperforming us. There’s no reason that we can’t expect more from our students.”
Improving outcomes will require changes at the district level, Navarro said.
“Clearly it’s not our students that have been failing,” she said. “We haven’t been effective in what we were doing, and we need to do something different.”
Navarro also pointed to improving math performance — particularly preparing incoming freshmen to pass Math 1 — as well as strengthening college readiness, critical thinking and media literacy.
“Those were our four goals that we came up with, making sure that kids have the supports that they need,” she said.
She added that the district must continue focusing on its most vulnerable students, including those experiencing homelessness, those in foster care and students in special education.
“I feel like the majority of us on the board are in agreement about the direction we want this board to go,” Navarro said.
While tensions on the board have eased over the past year, disagreements between Navarro and Trustee Gabriel Medina — who has also clashed with other board members, Superintendent Heather Contreras and some cabinet members — still affect portions of meetings.
Navarro said those challenges have been part of her learning process.
“I really think that we are working together more collaboratively,” she said. “And I own my own responses over the last year, and I have tried over the last eight months or so to not take the bait and try to rise above it.”
If reelected, Navarro would continue her tenure following a recent round of layoffs affecting teachers and other employees, actions the district took to address a budget deficit.
She said she does not want those decisions to define her time on the board.
“We’ve had to make some really hard, painful decisions to maintain fiscal solvency,” she said. “And I don’t want to just make all the tough decisions. I want to actually be around when we start seeing the changes happen and can focus more on our student outcomes. I want to be around to see our students being more successful.”
Navarro said improving mental health services is another priority, while ensuring those services remain financially sustainable.
“As an emergency physician, I see this all the time in my work, and it’s something that I feel really passionate about,” she said. “But at the end of the day, what we were paying for the services we were providing is not sustainable. Mental health is still a huge priority to me, and I’ve been in lots of discussions with our mental health providers and our academic counselors, who are still going to be there.”
Navarro’s reelection bid also comes as the district prepares to receive a report from the newly formed Sustainable Schools Advisory Team, which is studying whether — and how — to close schools with low enrollment.
“It’s going to be painful no matter what,” she said. “Nobody wants their neighborhood school to close. It comes with a whole host of difficult decisions and community engagement, and it’s not an easy process, which is why we’re trying to be really mindful and have as much community engagement as possible.”
