Law enforcement, fire and EMS personnel are participating in Santa Cruz County’s five-day active-shooter response training this week at Soquel High School. The annual exercise, hosted by the sheriff’s office, brings together about 150 officers and more than 80 firefighters to practice coordinated response to a simulated mass-casualty incident.
Education
Posted inEducation
Watsonville police charge woman with criminal threats after social media comment
Watsonville police officers arrested a 22-year-old woman Friday after they say she posted a threatening comment on Instagram directed at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District board.
Posted inEducation
California gave every student in prison a laptop. How community colleges are using them
California prisons have given 30,000 laptops to incarcerated students. Inmates say using technology prepares them to enter the workforce. As community colleges start replacing correspondence courses by mail with online-only classes, students and professors debate whether this type of learning is any more effective.
Posted inEducation
Could early education bring down rising costs to serve California students with disabilities?
Parents, educators and researchers say that inclusive early education improves outcomes for students with disabilities and reduces the need for more intensive — and costly — special education services in older grades.
Posted inEducation
Here are the recommendations for renaming Watsonville’s Cesar Chavez Middle School
A Pajaro Valley Unified School District committee has recommended renaming Cesar E. Chavez Middle School either Central Coast Middle School or Tagami Hashimoto Middle School following allegations of sexual abuse against the late civil rights and farmworker advocate that surfaced earlier this year. The school board reviewed the options last week and is expected to vote on a new name at a future meeting.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Newsom promised to help Californians build new careers. Now, the money is running out
Gov. Gavin Newsom made job training and the creation of a master plan for career education part of his agenda. Now, key workforce initiatives might get no new funding.
Posted inWatsonville / Pajaro
Police determine suspicious device found at Watsonville High to be ‘nonexplosive science experiment’
Watsonville police officers were investigating a suspicious device found on the Watsonville High School campus Thursday morning.
Posted inEducation
UC Santa Cruz senior graduates after five years of ‘good trouble’
UC Santa Cruz graduate Airielle Silva was honored with the John R. Lewis Good Trouble Award after five years of student leadership and activism. As she addressed fellow graduates at commencement, Silva reflected on her advocacy work while urging the university to continue addressing longstanding Black student demands.
Posted inEducation
Some California schools get three times more funding than others. Here’s why
School funding in California steers a lot to wealthy districts and to those with high-needs students. Those in the middle get a lot less.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Teachers at Pajaro Middle School say they don’t feel safe or supported. Why isn’t the district acting?
Pajaro Middle School survived catastrophic flooding in 2023, but now faces a different challenge: a breakdown in trust between teachers, administrators and the district, writes Brandon Diniz, president of the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers Local 1936. Teachers cite safety concerns, poor communication and inadequate responses to serious incidents, he writes. In May, 88% of teachers said they had no confidence in principal Nicole Killian’s leadership. District leaders, Diniz says, can no longer dismiss the concerns as a labor dispute and must address the serious issues the school faces.
