PVUSD trustees slash 80 teacher positions in revote

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District voted Monday night, during a specially scheduled meeting, to cut roughly 80 teacher positions.

The reductions include 30 elementary multiple-subject teaching positions, 10 middle school core teaching positions, and counseling staff. Additional cuts to single-subject teachers include five in English and 2.5 in physical education.

Further reductions affect band, choir, theater arts, and film/video production. The district also eliminated two behaviorist positions and 22 part-time reading intervention teachers.

The vote came after Trustee Gabe Medina requested three times that the decision be delayed until after the new year. Each motion failed after no other board member seconded them.

Trustees Daniel Dodge Jr. and Medina cast the dissenting votes. Trustees Misty Navarro, Jessica Carrasco, Olivia Flores, and Carol Turley voted in favor of the cuts.

The decision mirrored the Dec. 11 meeting, during which the board took action without the public present after clearing the Watsonville City Council Chambers when attendees repeatedly shouted out of turn.

Turley, who was appointed board president during that meeting, said she requested the item be brought back for a revote to allow members of the public to comment.

More than two dozen people addressed the board, urging trustees not to approve the cuts.

Aptos High School student Abigail Anderson said choir has been a significant part of her life and that she plans to pursue music in college. She said she is now considering leaving the district.

“I was completely destroyed the night I learned that the proposed budget cuts include my choir director at Aptos High School,” Anderson said. “If this program were cut, I would be completely devastated, and it would leave a massive hole in my life. I wouldn’t have the motivation to come to school, and I wouldn’t find any joy in it. I would feel completely betrayed by this board and district.”

Carrasco asked the public to trust the board, saying trustees are making closed-door decisions based on legal and logistical requirements that cannot yet be publicly disclosed.

“That has been incredibly frustrating for me, because I know the silence sends the wrong message,” Carrasco said. “All I can ask right now is for your faith and a little more time so we can show you the work behind the scenes.”

Medina criticized the district and the board for proposing cuts to both mental health services and the arts, which he said work together to support students.

“The arts are crucial if you’re going to be taking away mental health services,” Medina said. “Once you take away mental health services and art, you’re setting up our students for failure.”

Teacher Noelle Brand said the cuts will have a ripple effect, leading to larger class sizes and additional harm to students.

“That influences my ability to teach every child in my class,” Brand said. “It trickles down very quickly.”

Brand also urged the board to pull the item and wait until Gov. Gavin Newsom releases the state’s preliminary budget in January, which she said would provide a clearer picture of school funding.

“You don’t know all of the information,” Brand said. “We’re working without all of the facts in front of us, and to be honest, it feels like this is being made in a panic.”

Flores said the district’s fiscal crisis has been foreseeable for several years.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, state and federal funding provided a temporary fix, Flores said, but added that the district has not used that time to prepare for long-term financial challenges.

Instead, the district used one-time funds to pay for ongoing positions, she said.

“We are now dealing with the consequences of those decisions, alongside declining enrollment,” Flores said.

Dodge said a family member’s learning disabilities were identified by a reading specialist.

“That early intervention changed his path in life,” Dodge said, adding that the need for such services is greater than ever.

“I recognize and take seriously my fiduciary responsibility as a trustee,” Dodge said. “And because of that duty, and because of my lived experience, I cannot in good conscience support this agenda item. I cannot support taking away the very services that helped my brother and continue to help so many students.”