
During a special meeting Friday afternoon, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees appointed a new member to fill the seat left vacant when Kim De Serpa resigned to begin her role as a county supervisor.
The board interviewed two candidates who applied to serve Trustee Area 1, which covers the northern part of the District including Aptos High and Aptos Junior High schools, along with Mar Vista, Bradley and Valencia elementary schools.
After a failed 3–3 vote to appoint Nubia Padilla—an appointment requires four votes—the board voted 4-1 for Flynn, with Trustee Gabriel Medina abstaining and Daniel Dodge, Jr. dissenting.
Flynn’s experience includes as a Second Harvest Food Bank Board Trustee, a four-year term on the Santa Cruz County Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Circle on Anti-Racism, Social and Economic Justice (CARES-J).
She also served as a Trustee on the Pacific Collegiate School District Board.
“I’m not a miracle worker, I’m not going to pretend to be,” she said in her statement before the vote. “I do have the experience of working on a school board. I have community partnerships that are strong. I love this community. You need someone who can handle the heat, and my public work over the last five years … I think is proof of that.”
Flynn comes to the board at a time when an economic recession is a possibility and budget cuts are a certainty as PVUSD stares down declining enrollment and a new Presidential administration that is openly hostile to public education.
The board voted earlier this month to trim more than $5 million from the budget, a move that is a portent of decisions to come.
“I know how to make hard decisions and stand behind them even when people don’t like them,” she said. “But I also know how to make sure that people feel valued and listened to during those hard decision times.”