Quick Take
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board has postponed discussion of a controversial proposal to relocate students from Renaissance High to Duncan Holbert School and disperse Duncan Holbert’s special education program after parents, staff and students urged trustees to reject the plan.
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board has tabled a discussion of a controversial proposal to relocate two schools after school staff, parents and students decried the idea last week.
PVUSD administrators recommended that Renaissance High students be relocated to Duncan Holbert School, whose students and staff would then be dispersed to different district schools. Renaissance is an alternative high school, while Duncan Holbert serves children ages 0 to 5 with disabilities. District officials first informed staff at the two schools of the proposal on May 15.
The seven-member school board first discussed the plan at its May 20 meeting, before a planned vote on the proposal on June 17, which is now on hold.
During the board meeting last Wednesday, dozens of staff members and parents argued how important these schools are to the populations they serve and demanded that the district scrap the idea.
Duncan Holbert parent Karen Solar said her children live with conditions including epilepsy and autism and that without trained staff, they can’t safely go to school.
“If my child has a seizure without trained support nearby, it becomes a medical emergency,” she said. “Without appropriate autism support, they can become overwhelmed and unable to learn. These are not hypothetical situations. This is our daily reality.”
The board heard hours of speakers who shared similar sentiments during a meeting that lasted more than eight hours. After the public comment period concluded, the trustees had a short discussion where they also said they believed the two schools were functioning well and they didn’t want to disrupt their programs. They also said they understood that the district has significant issues that need to be solved, including a water infrastructure problem at Renaissance, high transportation costs for the school’s students and the district’s declining enrollment and budget deficit.
Trustee Gabe Medina recommended that the district table the discussion and that PVUSD staff not bring the item back to the board’s agenda next month as planned. He said before the school board considers a relocation proposal related to the schools, he wants the district’s newly formed community advisory committee – tasked with looking at school facilities and potential closures – to first review it and come up with a recommendation.
Medina confronted Superintendent Heather Contreras about the proposal, saying that many people in the community were surprised by the idea. Contreras said that was not the intent, but to bring the discussion to the board for consideration to try to solve the district’s problems.
“Sometimes you have to learn the hard way, and unfortunately it maybe was at the expense of other people,” she said. “And I do apologize for that.”
Renaissance High serves 92 students from its La Selva Beach campus, while Duncan Holbert School serves about 200 students from its Watsonville campus, adjacent to Rolling Hills Middle School.
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