Quick Take
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board rejected a vote of no confidence in its leadership Wednesday while continuing to debate the scope and procedures of school resource officers on campus. Trustees offered feedback on a draft agreement outlining officer roles, with some urging more clarity before students return Aug. 13.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s governing board on Wednesday continued its heated debate of what school resource officers can and can’t do on campus, after the board renewed contracts to place law enforcement officers on its high school campuses earlier this month.
Board chair Olivia Flores said that when Superintendent Heather Contreras was hired on, she noticed there weren’t formal written procedures for the program. Launched in 2021, the program pairs a mental health clinician with a police officer or sheriff’s deputy to respond to incidents and provide support to students.
“I’m a little sad that we didn’t have written procedures, which was something that when Dr. Contreras came on, saw that we were lacking a lot,” she said. “I think this is an amazing start. It’s disheartening to know that we did not have this in place before.”
The board discussed a drafted agreement between the district and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and the Watsonville Police Department, presented by Interim Executive Director Student Support Services Heather Gorman. It lays out the roles, and permitted and prohibited activities of the officers. The agreement prohibits the officers from, “engaging in or initiating school disciplinary actions, including citations to students.” However, the agreement provides exceptions to that like when a student is brandishing a knife.
Several trustees, including Gabe Medina, Carol Turley and vice chair Misty Navarro, requested that the agreement provide more details about when the officers become involved in school disciplinary actions and how and when parents are informed that their child is being cited.
“I’m more of a detailed person, and this seems like a 10,000 foot perspective,” said Navarro. “I’d like to see a lot more specifics in it.”
With the trustees’ feedback, Gorman will return to the board at a future meeting for approval of the agreement. During the July 16 meeting, several trustees requested that the agreement be completed before students were back at school, Aug. 13.
Additionally, the board rejected a vote of no confidence in board leadership – an agenda item proposed by Medina, who accused Flores and Navarro of a lack of “transparency, fairness and core values of public service.”
District spokesperson Alicia Jimenez said a vote of no confidence doesn’t have any legal standing to remove the trustees from their chair and vice chair roles, but “it may signal the board’s intent to reevaluate its internal governance and consider potential reorganization of officer positions or other measures to promote unity and effectiveness.”
However, in this case, without a successful vote, Flores and Navarro maintain their roles.
The governing board also created an ad hoc committee, including Turley, Jessica Carrasco and Medina, to explore lowering the voting age to 16 for school board elections.