Quick Take
Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Heather Contreras comes from a family of educators, and a family that once made its home in Watsonville. With the district facing ongoing challenges including declining enrollment, she's starting out with a "Look, listen and learn" tour.
As assistant superintendent of a school district in Modesto, Heather Contreras had been keeping an eye on Pajaro Valley Unified School District for years because of her long ties to the area. So when she saw the opening for a new superintendent at the district, she hopped on it.
Born and raised in Turlock, Contreras comes from a family of educators, and a family that once made its home in Watsonville.
Her husband is a special education teacher, her two adult children are teachers and her daughter Sofia, now a junior at Aptos High School, also wants to be a teacher. Contreras’ father was a superintendent and her mother worked in school district offices. Her grandfather taught math at Watsonville High School and Aptos High.
“This area has been a huge part of my life since before I was born. My parents were born and raised in Gilroy. My father’s family was in Watsonville forever, since the 1800s,” she said. “They were ranchers and their last name was McCandless – we’re talked about in one of John Steinbeck’s books. We have big roots here.”
Most recently, she served as the assistant superintendent of school leadership for Modesto City Schools for the past four years. With 22 years in education, Contreras first worked as a primary and junior high school teacher before taking on district office leadership roles seven years ago.
Future dates for Contreras’ listening tour
- Thursday, May 9: Aptos Jr. High cafeteria, 6 p.m.; light meal, 6:30 p.m.
- Monday, May 13: Pajaro Valley High cafeteria, 6 p.m.; light meal, 6:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, May 15: Watsonville High cafeteria, 6 p.m.; light meal; 6:30 p.m. This meeting will have Mixteco interpreters.
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board approved Contreras’ contract and appointed her as the next superintendent at its March 13 meeting. Her first day on the job was last Wednesday, taking over from interim superintendent Murry Schekman, who has filled the role for the past year. The board appointed Schekman after former superintendent Michelle Rodriguez resigned last year to lead the Stockton Unified School District.
Since starting last week, Contreras has been visiting district offices and schools and holding meet-and-greets with the community. In addition to introducing herself and meeting people, she’s focused on learning a few things from each person: “What’s working really well? What are you really proud of? And what are some things that we might look at that need attention?”
Contreras said it’s too soon to give a general summary of the responses to those questions that she’s heard so far. But she said that the district will release a public report in the coming months based on the feedback she’s compiling for the next month or so. The report will help the district, and Contreras, move forward with their goals.
“It’s not going to be my goals for the district,” she said. “It’s going to be the community’s goals for the district, and how do I help as a facilitator to reach the goals that the community wants to see happen?”
Speaking from her preliminary understanding of the district, and the struggles districts across the state are facing, Contreras shared what she thinks some of the major challenges will be for Pajaro Valley Unified in the coming years.
“We’re all experiencing the same things right now in our school districts,” she said. “It’s not unique to Pajaro Valley, it’s really happening all over California – and declining enrollment is one.”
The district, county and state are all experiencing a sharp decline in enrollment which is expected to continue in the coming years. From 2013 to 2023, PVUSD’s enrollment declined about 15%, from 18,368 down to 15,920.
Santa Cruz County’s public schools are projected to see enrollment fall by more than 21% over the next decade, according to recent figures from the state.
Contreras said that additional focuses for the district will be attendance and chronic absenteeism, the loss of COVID funds from the state and student learning recovery coming out of the pandemic.
For Contreras, her tour of the district this month, called her “Look, listen and learn” tour, will be an essential foundation for her PVUSD tenure – which she said she plans to last for a long time.
“I would love to be here for the rest of my career,” she said. “Hopefully, they’ll have me that long.”
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