Quick Take
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board hired a new chief business officer Wednesday night, but the moment was briefly overshadowed by a tense exchange between Superintendent Heather Contreras and Trustee Joy Flynn over contract language regarding health benefits. Despite the disagreement, the board unanimously approved Castillo’s contract.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District voted to hire a new chief business officer Wednesday – Gerardo Castillo, the current chief business officer of Robla School District in Sacramento.
Castillo will start on the job Oct. 1 with a one-year contract that ends June 30, 2026, and can be renewed for an additional two years after board approval.
Castillo, who was present at Wednesday night’s board meeting to approve his hiring, told the board he was excited for the role. The district has been without a chief budget officer since late June, when former CBO Jenny Im resigned. Im announced her resignation in March after the district’s governing board rejected layoff proposals to keep the district fiscally solvent.
But excitement over finding a new chief business officer after years of turnover was briefly overshadowed by a tense exchange between Superintendent Heather Contreras and Trustee Joy Flynn over confusion about Castillo’s contract.
Flynn said she was concerned that the contract included language indicating the district would offer health benefits to the new budget officer when Castillo had told the district he did not intend to accept them.
The contract read: “The District will provide, at District expense, the same options for medical, dental and vision coverage afforded to all full time employees.” Castillo spoke up to clarify that he isn’t taking benefits through the district because he gets benefits through his wife.
Flynn and Contreras engaged in a back and forth, with Contreras expressing frustration at the line of questioning about an employee contract in a public forum while the trustee argued that the meeting was her chance to ask clarifying questions about items she votes for. During the interaction, Flynn said she wouldn’t approve the contract because of the discrepancy.
“I’m not appreciating the tone. I’m here to ask questions. I’m allowed to do that,” said Flynn, in response to Contreras’ frustration. “What I’m seeing here is not in alignment with what I was being told. So maybe it’s just wordsmithing. That’s it. I don’t understand why it’s a big deal.”
Contreras replied: “There is no trickery here” and said there is an option for the employee to buy benefits. She added that the contract has been available for questioning for two weeks.
“I guess it’s just my feeling of, it’s kind of unfortunate that we have our new potential CBO hearing this — that this is happening in a public venue,” said Contreras.
Flynn added that she only wanted the line about offering benefits taken out of the contract: “That’s all I was trying to say from the very beginning. That’s it.”
The board voted unanimously to approve Castillo’s contract — with trustees Daniel Dodge Jr. and Gabe Medina absent.
Additionally, during public comment, at least 10 students and teachers spoke out against a reduction of one of the two school counselors at Cesar Chavez Middle School.
Cesar Chavez Middle School student Jessica C. told the board that the school needs two counselors because the workers provide a lot of support to students.
“Only having one counselor would take away opportunities for kids,” said Jessica. “If you’re going through a crisis you might not get the help you need right away. This will be devastating, given that this year alone, we have already lost three students in PVUSD to suicide.”
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