County superintendent of schools warns PVUSD of ‘antisemitic tropes’ during ethnic studies debate

Pajaro Valley Unified School District is facing scrutiny from the county’s top education official over comments by trustees he warned “appeared to invoke anti-Semitic tropes” during a contentious meeting about the district’s ethnic studies curriculum earlier this month.

In a letter dated April 23, Santa Cruz County Superintendent Faris Sabbah rebuked PVUSD’s board, citing what he said were months of “conduct and rhetoric” at board meetings that his office had monitored.

“In particular, I was deeply concerned by comments made by trustees during the April 16, 2025, board meeting that appeared to invoke anti-Semitic tropes,” he wrote. “Regardless of intent, I hope you can appreciate how such comments can cause significant harm to the PVUSD community.”

The board’s April 16 meeting was a pivotal moment for the district as trustees unanimously voted to renew a one-year contract with Community Responsive Education (CRE) to provide professional development to school administrators about the district’s ethnic studies program. The firm that has been at the heart of a yearlong debate over PVUSD’s ethnic studies curriculum.  

Sabbah’s letter didn’t mention specific statements made by trustees and didn’t mention trustees by name, and a spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. However, Jewish media outlets cited comments made by elected officials at the April 16 meeting. 

Specifically, The Jewish News of Northern California referenced statements made by trustees Joy Flynn and Gabe Medina. Flynn, who is considered to be the district’s first Black trustee, talked about her experience of anti-Blackness and praised the activism of pro-CRE supporters. 

The Jewish News pointed to Flynn’s comments that she was “taken aback by the lack of acknowledgement of the economic power historically held by the Jewish community – that the community that of Black and brown people don’t have, and while they have people power, there is that economic power that really does exist.” 

The newspaper also mentioned Medina’s criticism against the Jewish community members who have regularly attended meetings to oppose CRE. Medina, who is Latino, mentions that Latinos and minorities have been “treated with so much disrespect over these years.” 

“I don’t see you people at protests against immigration. I don’t see you at protests when people are being taken away right now. I don’t see you advocating to bring back [Kilmar Armando] Abrego Garcia,” he said during the April 16 meeting. Abrego Garcia is the Maryland resident wrongfully deported to El Salvador, his home country.

“I don’t see you guys doing that. You only show up to meetings when it’s beneficial for you, so you could tell brown people who they are,” Medina said, adding that Jewish opponents of the CRE contract were “utilizing your grandchildren as a cover in order to get us to feel some sort of emotion is insane. What a manipulation tactic that you all were pulling here tonight.”

District Superintendent Heather Contreras said in a statement to Lookout that the district is “against all forms of racism, antisemitism and hate.” 

“We are aware of the concerns raised and want to be clear that our district is guided by the principles of equity, dignity and mutual respect in everything we do,” she wrote. “In partnership with the board, I am developing specific actions we can take as a district and board to address these concerns.” 

In Sabbah’s letter, he recommended that the district’s trustees undergo governance, ethics and education law training, conflict resolution training and also have legal counsel present at all its meetings to ensure the board is following laws governing the board’s actions. The district’s legal counsel wasn’t present at the April 16 meeting. 

The Brown Act is the state law regulating public agencies’ meetings to ensure they’re open to the public and transparent. Sabbah mentioned that the board was at risk of violating the Brown Act “specifically by taking, or attempting to take action on matters not properly listed on a publicly posted agenda.” He didn’t provide a specific example in his letter, and his office didn’t immediately respond to a request Monday night. 

In her statement, Contreras said that legal counsel will be present at the next meeting and the board will decide then whether or not counsel will continue going to future meetings. 

District spokesperson Alicia Jimenez didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment regarding what Contreras thought about Flynn and Medina’s comments or if Contreras was concerned about the trustees’ behavior. 

Medina posted a response to Sabbah’s letter on Substack criticizing Sabbah for not “directly naming or analyzing” comments that Sabbah said appeared to invoke antisemitic tropes. 

“This tactic chills speech, especially when used against trustees of color challenging systems of power,” he wrote. “We must ask: whose discomfort is being centered when our board addresses racial inequity?”

The controversy over PVUSD’s ethnic studies curriculum centers on CRE, a consulting firm co-founded by San Francisco State University professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales. The district began working with the firm’s staff in 2021 to help teachers develop an ethnic studies framework unique to the district. Teachers, former trustees, many students and the former interim superintendent praised the program and the work CRE did with the district. 

In September 2023, several Jewish community members and two former trustees accused the firm’s founder of antisemitism. Jewish community members opposing a contract with the firm, including Gil Stein, former PVUSD trustee Doug Kaplan and Roz Shorenstein, argue their concerns of antisemitism are related to Tintiangco-Cubales’ involvement in a controversial 2019 model ethnic studies curriculum developed for the state. They disagreed with the model curriculum’s description of the Israel-Palestine conflict and said it didn’t include an adequate discussion of antisemitism. 

That led the board to not renew the contract during that meeting over a year ago. Community members, teachers, students and parents urged the board to renew the contract at every board meeting thereafter and denounced the claims of antisemitism against Tintiangco-Cubales as unfounded. 

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