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Pajaro School Trustees’ Race Draws a Crowd of Contenders
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Pajaro School Trustees’ Race Draws a Crowd of Contenders
Candidates Divided on Role of Voter Groups Reviewing Candidates
By Michael Thomas
Candidates in the race for four seats on the Pajaro School District Board are preparing for a closely fought, and closely watched, campaign season. After a year of controversy and the resignation of many top District officials â€" including Superintendent Dr. Mary Anne Mays â€" incumbent Board President Sharon Gray along with trustees Rhea de Hart and Willie Yahiro will have to face voters. In her resignation, Dr. Mays charged that Gray and DeHart meddled in the work of District managers. Another employee lawsuit is pending, with a now-former Pajaro manager accusing Gray in the debacle she says led to unfounded charges of embezzlement against her.
This November, there are four of seven seats on Pajaro’s board up for grabs. Three incumbents have filed â€" Gray, DeHart and Yahiro. Veteran trustee Evelyn Volpa chose not to run again. Pajaro trustees are elected by district, with each trustee representing a geographically defined area of the larger district. Pajaro Valley’s unified district is the County’s largest, with about 19,000 students on campuses from Aptos through North Monterey County.
A Full Slate of Candidates
Current Board President Gray, whose trustee area includes La Selva Beach and Rio Del Mar, will be defending her seat against two contenders. Kim Turley is a real estate agent and Watsonville High basketball coach. John Brough is a La Selva Beach resident. Each has entered the race against the three-term trustee.
Trustee DeHart is also up for reelection as the representative of areas including northwestern Watsonville. She is being challenged by Leslie DeRose, an active Pajaro parent who has volunteered in classrooms and helped on fundraising efforts.
Board member Volpa, who represents Corralitos and parts of Aptos, has decided not to seek reelection. Her departure spurred three candidates to file for the post. Bruce Matthias is a contractor who has served on the North Zone Bond oversight committee, and who supports Gray and DeHart. Libby Wilson, a self-employed sales rep for hardware manufacturers, was encouraged to run by Volpa.
Rounding out the ballot is David Wright, a business manager and occasional teacher who organized the group Friends of the Rail Trail to advocate for public purchase of the UP rail corridor.
Also seeking reelection is southern Watsonville representative Willie Yahiro. Yahiro is facing off for the second time against Aurelio Gonzales, a construction foreman and school site council volunteer.
Diverse Candidates in Aptos Area Race
Volpa said she was retiring from school politics to focus on other career goals, noting that she originally intended to serve only for a single term. Volpa believes that change will be necessary if the district is to attract a new superintendent on par with Dr. Mays, who resigned in February, citing micromanagement by trustees Gray, DeHart and Sandra Nichols. Nichols is not up for election in 2006.
“I don’t think with the sitting board the way it is … PVUSD can attract a good superintendent,” Volpa said.
She agreed with Mays that some board members have overstepped their boundaries. “Just the other night we had a board meeting where Rhea DeHart said she spends 40 hours a week [on district business],” Volpa added. “That’s micromanagement. You’re not supposed to spend that much time.”
Members of one of two groups formed to endorse candidates has suggested luring Dr. Mays back to serve as superintendent, but Volpa believes it would be healthier to “start fresh.”
She has endorsed Libby Wilson, also a personal friend, in the race for her board seat.
Wilson’s children have attended Pajaro schools for 14 years and she has been an active supporter of Valencia Elementary.
“This spring with the superintendent resigning and everything I decided it was time to get more involved,” Wilson said. “We need [a superintendent] who is able to step into all of those many hats and work collaboratively with staff and the board.”
She wants to work on reducing the district’s dropout rate and improving programs for students, noting that the board appears to have been diverted by other issues. Dr. Mays is credited with significantly improving student test scores in virtually all district schools, however much remains to be done. Presently 15 of Pajaro’s schools are labeled by the state as needing improvement.
Wilson said she will apply for endorsement from the Committee for Good School Governance, a committee formed by local businesspeople and education activists to review candidate qualifications. The committee’s involvement has been praised by some and criticized as interference by others.
Candidate Bruce Matthias is one of its vocal critics.
“I believe this group wants control of the school board,” he said. Describing the outside influence as a threat to the democratic process, he called it “a viper in the nursery.”
Matthias is a contractor who has served on the North Zone Bond Oversight Committee, and contributed to school site beautification projects. He said he has never bid on district contracts or billed the district for services.
Matthias was a supporter of efforts to split PVUSD and create two districts serving north and south schools. He said he spent 1,000 hours on the effort, but doesn’t plan to pursue it further.
“Politically, it’s just not going to happen,” he said.
Matthias said he agreed with Volpa on most district matters, with the exception of Dr. Mays.
“I don’t think she had the leadership to take a mule to water,” he said.
He stopped short of criticizing the board’s focus over the past year, but said that, “I would prefer to see other issues brought up.”
Among his priorities would be defending the High School Exit Exam.
“I think it is the most important thing to students since the pocket calculator. There is going to be constant political pressure to chip away at it,” Matthias said.
He is also frustrated that the district’s calendar is tailored to migrant students, while few attending North Zone schools need the short summer and long winter break that results.
“Because I do get along very well with Sharon Gray, I think we could work on this problem. My tack would be to take it as a zone issue,” he said, implying that separate schedules could be developed.
Challenger David Wright is supportive of the current board’s track record.
“It’s been a reasonably effective board,” he said. As to long debates over school naming and military recruiting, Wright said “The community has wanted to talk about those things. I don’t know that the board has any choice but to deal with those things.”
In addition to founding Friends of the Rail Trail, Wright has been an interim instructor at Cabrillo and a substitute for Santa Cruz City Schools. He has two children at Aptos High, where he has also coached basketball in past years.
He is a business manager for a commercial cabinet manufacturer and has a masters degree in public administration.
“Being a business manager, I am interested in applying as many business tools to the budget process as possible,” Wright said.
He would like to see the controversies fade so the board can focus on priorities such as books, transportation and healthy lunches.
Facing Challengers, Gray Says District is Improving
Current Board President Gray was first elected in 1994 and is now seeking a fourth term. She is retired except for her work as a trustee and the one week per month she spends in Sacramento working on a Teacher Credentialing Committee.
In spite of recent turmoil, she believes the district is headed in a good direction.
“I have seen, since Terry McHenry came on [as Interim Superintendent] a great focus on student achievement,” she said.
Because McHenry has officially retired, he cannot work past December before leaving the district. Trustees have yet to focus on finding a new superintendent since Mays’ February resignation.
“Terry has brought in a person to review how we do our English language development,” she pointed out. “This is something that really has to be done if we are going to bring up our API and AYP [test scores].”
Gray said she recently attended a union-supported workshop in Burlingame aimed at raising the academic bar in the classroom.
“It’s work, but everybody seems to be up for it.” She also pointed out that the district has a strong budget for the coming year. “We are going to be moving forward on a very firm financial basis.”
Nevertheless, challenger Kim Turley believes there’s room for improvement.
“I’m concerned that with all the turmoil in the district, we’ve lost focus,” Turley said. She began attending board meetings regularly when Dr. Mays resigned. “That was a big concern for me. Dr. Mays has done a lot for the children in our community.”
Though Turley, a real estate agent, has no children, her nephews and niece attend Aptos schools. She coached girl’s basketball at Watsonville High and taught physical education classes at PVUSD middle and elementary schools for 15 years. Since leaving the teaching behind four years ago, she has continued to volunteer and support fundraising efforts.
She said she would seek endorsements from both the Committee for Good School Governance and the separate group led by former Pajaro trustee Jane Barr, where she has attended meetings.
“I feel as a board member, you need to be a model for children … and conduct yourself in an honest and dignified way,” Turley added.
Also competing for Gray’s seat is John Brough of La Selva Beach. Brough was unavailable to comment.
DeHart Battles to Keep Job as Trustee
Trustee Rhea DeHart sees the trustee role as a job, and treats it like a full-time one.
“Education is my profession. Almost everything I do is related to Watsonville and the school district,” she said.
DeHart also serves on the boards of Pajaro Valley Student Assistance and MAYA, which places scholarship coordinators in the high schools. In addition to a long run on the school board, she is also active with the Farm Bureau.
When students came back to school in recent weeks, DeHart was right there to see how things were running.
“Yesterday I spent time at all the schools in my area,” she said. “I attend all the meetings of the site councils and the bond oversight committees in my district.”
Responding to recent criticisms of the board, she defended its focus on student achievement.
“It’s just part of the process that you discuss things and you may have disagreements about your solutions but you [continue to work on them]. … This is a crucial year as far as moving forward,” DeHart added. “We have five schools and possibly seven schools that are in peril.”
She believes the selection of a new superintendent is crucial.
“I think if we could find someone within the community that would be great … someone who has a high level of interpersonal relations with people,” she said.
DeHart is highly critical of both independent groups that have formed to endorse and advocate for certain candidates.
“I am not taking a pledge to any special group,” she said. In fact a pledge is not required. Rather, the Committee for Good School Governance has asked that the post-November Pajaro Board adopt the California School Board Association’s better governance practices, like many other boards in California including the Santa Cruz County Board of Education.
Still, DeHart sees the volunteer voter committee â€" including former trustees â€" as part of a pattern set by the mayor of Los Angeles exerting influence on the school district there. “There is this whole power grab to remove elected school district officials and have local officials or business officials come in and take over,” DeHart claimed.
DeHart’s challenger, Leslie DeRose, would like to look within the district to find opportunities for improvement.
“We can get the district back into a teamwork environment, which has been lost over the last couple years,” she said. “The focus has been on the board and the district … instead of on the day to day work.”
DeRose, who works for the Aptos Chamber of Commerce, has lived in Watsonville for 20 years. She has a daughter at Aptos High and a son attending Aptos Junior High. She has volunteered in classrooms as a teacher’s aide, and supported fundraising and field trips.
She is optimistic about the search for a new top administrator to lead the district.
“We live in a beautiful area and we want to be able to attract a great superintendent. With a supportive board we can do that,” DeRose said.
She plans to seek endorsements from the School Governance Committee.
“I am hoping they will support me. The members in that group are wonderful leaders,” she said.
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