Quick Take
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board re-approved 81 teaching-related layoffs during a special meeting Monday after hearing public opposition from teachers, students and parents who were previously unable to comment. Board leaders said the vote was called to allow public input after an earlier meeting was disrupted, while union representatives criticized the decision and alleged violations of state open-meeting laws.
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board re-approved layoffs it authorized earlier this month during a special meeting Monday evening after listening to public comments from teachers, students and parents, all of whom opposed the staff reductions.
On Dec. 11, the board approved two lists of layoffs that would target nearly 160 positions, including all of the district’s 13 mental health clinicians, dozens of teachers and more than 40 special education positions.
The special meeting on Monday was only to vote a second time on about half of the layoffs: 81 positions for staff with teaching credentials, including 15 counselors, 12.55 part-time reading-intervention positions, 30 elementary teaching positions and more than 20 other teaching positions.
Board president Carol Turley said the special meeting was held because the board wanted to give the public the opportunity to comment on one of the two lists of layoffs because members of the public didn’t get that chance earlier this month.
“You may be asking why we’re here,” Turley said at the beginning of the meeting. “When we called this item a week ago, unfortunately — due to disruptions in the room — I had the room cleared so that we could finish the agenda. This is a board that values public comment.”
About 70 community members attended the meeting Monday night in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s board room in Watsonville. The trustees had already allowed public comment on layoffs for classified employees, such as mental health clinicians and special education staff, on Dec. 11, so the board discussed only layoffs of staff with teaching credentials. During public comment Monday, many of the speakers continued to call on the board to rescind the layoffs for teachers, or to delay a decision until further research could be done.
Aptos High student Abigail Anderson, one of the dozens of people who were unable to speak during the previous meeting, finally got to say her piece. She told the board how important her choir teacher is for her well-being. One choir teacher position was part of the reductions.
“I was completely destroyed the night that I learned that the proposed budget cuts included my choir director at Aptos High School,” she said. “For the past three years, choir has been a significant part of my life and has opened up so many new opportunities for me. Some days, the only reason I come to school is so I can be with my choir and work on music.”
Special education teachers spoke out against further cuts to their ranks, as the list included two behaviorists. Parents and a counselor talked about the importance of their jobs supporting struggling students.
Teachers union president Brandon Diniz told Lookout afterward that the meeting was “tone-deaf and self-serving.” He said the union continues to oppose the layoffs.
He suggested that the board called the special meeting to avoid complaints of violating the state law that regulates the transparency and openness of public meetings, called the Brown Act.
“Tonight’s meeting is insufficient to address the Brown Act violations we saw on Dec. 11, and if anything the district committed new violations tonight,” he said. “To not have the meeting livestreamed and to not have any interpreters available shows the district didn’t put any effort into ensuring that the public has access to the decisions made here tonight.”
Diniz said Turley violated the Brown Act when she cited disruptions and cleared the room, which prevented people from speaking during public comment. On Monday, Superintendent Heather Contreras said the district didn’t violate the Brown Act.
Diniz further said the district could have worked with the union to find solutions and waited until January to decide on layoffs.
“We can save the district more money by working together on meaningful retirement incentives,” he said. “Dr. Contreras is running this district like she’s a venture capitalist, not like an educator. The decision tonight does not put students first and will harm our community for generations to come. We will be organizing to demand that these layoffs be rescinded and we will not let up in the fight to put our students first.”
During the trustees’ discussion of the layoffs, Trustee Jessica Carrasco said voting to approve the layoffs is not something she wanted to do.
“What the community doesn’t know is that we’re actively working on solutions,” she said. “We do not plan to cut services to walk away from our students. Absolutely not. But because of legal and logistical requirements we cannot yet share the details. That has been incredibly frustrating for me because I know the silence sends the wrong message.”
Trustees Carrasco, Turley, Olivia Flores and Misty Navarro approved the layoffs, while Trustees Gabe Medina and Daniel Dodge Jr. rejected them. Trustee Joy Flynn was absent.
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