Pajaro Valley: Acosta Recall Movement, By Jondi Gumz

COMMUNITY NEWS PVUSD: Acosta Recall Movement

By Jondi Gumz

Acommittee formed to recall former school board president Georgia Acosta from the Pajaro Valley Unified School District board aims to file the official notice in a week or two, campaign manager Carol Turley said Tuesday. A Watsonville native, she lives in the Georgia Acosta district represented by Acosta and is the recall campaign manager.

Seven people have been meeting for the last two months, according to Jane Barr, who served on the school board and is an advisor to the committee.

The campaign issues are on the committee’s website, www.restoretrustpvusd. com/

The group alleges Acosta: • Skipped 26 board meetings • Accepted monthly stipend and health insurance ($6,000). • Emailed confidential board documents • Won’t meet with the superintendent • Won’t face the public • Retained an attorney to advise her for $16,000 • Attempted to silence the public • Has not apologized.

Their conclusion: Georgia needs to go.

“I live in that trustee district and right now I don’t have any representation,” said Turley, a Watsonville High School alum, like her two daughters, and a school volunteer before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Termination

The last straw was in January when Acosta, an ag businesswoman who was president of the school board, persuaded fellow board members to terminate Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez, who was

“CASA Advocate” from page 6

Is this your 1st child, and will you take another one afterward?

This was my first CASA kid and, I would love to be matched with another youth.

Do you have children of your own?

Ihave two kids, one at UC Santa Barbara, and one at UC Davis.

I am now an empty-nester! •••

CASA’S summer training dates are from July 19 — Aug. 18 on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5 to 8 p.m. Class size is limited to 15 people. Zoom court quickly reinstated by apologizing trustees, who then voted 4-2 in March to censure Acosta, a symbolic action showing their condemnation.

Kim De Serpa, Maria Orozco, Jennifer Schacher and Jennifer Holm voted yes; Acosta and Oscar Soto voted no, and Daniel Dodge Jr. abstained.

Barr said what led to Rodriguez’ temporary ouster was an interim financial report.

According to Barr, the report for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education showed the Pajaro Valley district would be in the red three years out, an early warning sign for financial difficulties. However, additional funds were due that put the district in the black for the third year – no financial woes – and the updated interim report was approved by the county Office of Education a day or two later.

Acosta “used that to get rid of the superintendent,” Barr said. “She caused chaos.”

Barr and Turley said the district was billed $16,000 in fees for an attorney Acosta hired to advise her.

Aptos Times left messages via email and phone for Acosta; one phone line said her voice mail was full and no longer taking messages. As of deadline Wednesday, she did not respond.

How Recall Started

Turley, who as a Watsonville Rotary member helped bring Cruzio Internet to Pajaro Valley students living at the Buena Vista Migrant Camp, said her recall involvement started with a phone call from her friend Leslie, asking if she knew what was happening with the school board and the superintendent.

Turley tuned into the board meetings hosted online via Zoom due to the pandemic.

observation dates are on Aug. 24 or 26 at 8:30 a.m. and the graduation date is Aug. 26.

A CASA advocate increases the wellbeing of a child in foster care, addressing mental, physical, and educational needs. They work to ensure the child’s safety while in foster care and help keep them connected to their culture and cultural identity. CASA volunteers advocate keeping families connected and together when safe and possible. n

CASA of Santa Cruz County

www.casaofsantacruz.org 813 Freedom Blvd. Watsonville

(831) 761-2956

Her reaction: Somebody ought to do something.

But nobody did. So she reached out to the people who had commented at the board meeting who felt the way she did.

“We put together a little group,” she said.

One member skilled at web design created an eye-catching red-and-black website with a close-up photo of Acosta’s eyeglasses, detailing the group’s allegations and asking for financial pledges.

2,150 Voters

Pajaro Valley school board members are elected by district, and the district Acosta represents has about 8,600 voters.

The first step is to write a statement of charges and gather 20 valid district voter signatures, turning this into the Santa Cruz County Elections Department.

There is no deadline to do this, but once the notice of intent to recall is filed, the group will have 90 days to get valid signatures from about 2,150 voters; Turley said she’s aiming for 2,500. The elections office will have 10 days to determine if there are enough valid signatures. If there are, there will be a recall election.

Barr said the recall group made its case to the Cesar Chavez Democratic Club and got a pledge of $5,000.

Asked about running a campaign during a pandemic, Turley called it “a wrinkle,” adding, “I got my second vaccine.”

She expects there will be campaigning outside grocery stores, such as Staff of Life Natural Foods, Safeway and Nob Hill.

Asked if Acosta’s district is one of the parts of the Pajaro Valley school district lacking Internet access for voter emails, but Turley said, “For the most part, everybody has charter available.” State and local ballot measure advertisements are required to contain disclosures including the phrase “Ad paid for by” followed by the committee name as well as naming top contributors, according to the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Cost

Arecall election is costly because it’s a special election billed entirely to the voters of the district.

“It will cost tens of thousands of dollars,” Barr predicted.

Asked if the expense is worth it, Turley said, “We wrestled with that. I brought it up to the team several times. Can we just neutralize her? Our determination was she’s dangerous for district and bad for kids. We can’t wait three years.”

Piggy-backing onto another ballot measure would cut costs, but this campaign comes too late to get on the Newsom recall ballot.

Turley, who monitors school board meetings, said Acosta’s legal bill hasn’t been paid by the board and Acosta hasn’t been seen on screen during recent sessions, including one in which top students were honored.

“She could do the right thing and step down,” Turley said. “We’re hopeful.” n

“Overbidding” from page 7

What’s driving the demand?

Bailey said it’s the work-at-home trend created by the COVID-19 pandemic attracted people who work in tech and are attracted to Aptos by the schools, the neighborhoods and the beach.

He’s representing the seller of 135 Seabreeze, on the Seascape Golf Course, asking $1.95 million.

One potential buyer who works in tech has sold his home and is moving to Aptos to enroll his daughter in school. Another works in tech and is eyeing Rio Del Mar Elementary for his 4-year-old son.

Bailey sees Aptos displacing Scotts Valley and Westside Santa Cruz as the hot areas in the county.

“I think Aptos is going to become Los Gatos on the coast,” he said.

Personal Appeal

This explains why the Rintoul family, a couple with two children, mailed a letter to homeowners in Scotts Valley saying they are looking for a home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms in Santa Cruz, Soquel, Capitola or Scotts Valley.

“We thought we’d reach out to homeowners directly … since we aren’t seeing much on the MLS,” they wrote.

Their agent, Chris Simone, said, “It hasn’t worked yet,” but he’s still working with the family and will take calls at (408) 772-7113.

As Gangnes sees it, “a convergence of extraordinary influences” is boosting prices to record levels but these conditions are temporary: • The record low mortgage rate was broken 17 times during the pandemic, as the Fed heavily purchased mortgage bonds; rates have increased in 2021. • Santa Cruz, Monterey and Contra

Costa counties have had an influx of work-at-home tech employees exiting

San Francisco and Silicon Valley. • National news of sharply rising prices motivate buyers to action.

Not enough people are listing their homes for sale to take advantage of this demand in the market.

Gangnes has several explanations: Some people are fearful of letting the public in their home due to concern about COVID-19 spread, people who would sell worry they wouldn’t find a replacement home locally to buy, and people who could move out of state are choosing to stay put during the pandemic.

One metric to track demand is the Unsold Inventory Index, listings divided by sales. Prices can increase when the index is below six months.

In March, the index was 1.9 months — and the pressure has been building.

Gangnes said the index has been below two months for six of the last seven months, which is very unusual because in the past, there was never a time with two consecutive months below 2.0.

“The Unsold Inventory Index is telling the story of the extreme difficulty wouldbe-buyers have been facing,” he said.

For would-be buyers losing out because their bid wasn’t accepted, they may buy a condo or townhome instead.

In August, before the UC Santa Cruz quarter began, the median price for condo and townhomes topped $750,000, and sales peaked at 60.

The median price remains fairly high — $640,000 in March, compared to $595,750 a year ago, with 55 sales, up from 30 a year ago.

And fewer people are selling condos and townhomes.

As of the first week of April, there were 55 listings compared to 104 in the first week of March 2020, before the pandemic, Gangnes reported.

Of those listings, 26 are under contract with a buyer, leaving only 29 active.

The trends Gangnes sees are also being seen in coastal California, according to the California Associatoin of Realtors. n •••

To view the local statistics, go to www. realoptions.com

“COVID Update” from page 8

No School Transmission

Sam Rolens, spokesman for Santa Cruz City Schools (which includes Soquel High) and a Gault parent, reported in his first weekly video news update on Facebook “the steadily improving picture of the pandemic locally,” with half of the county’s eligible population has received one shot, and more than a third fully vaccinated.

Even with elementary students back on campus five days a week, there have been zero cases of on-campus spread in Santa Cruz City Schools, he said, noting exposures and cases are tracked on the district website.

New air filtration systems have been installed at schools in preparation for the fall semester, he added.

“We haven’t all had the same year,” he said, noting some are carrying heavier loads of trauma and offering his willingness to serve as a resource via email.

Cabrillo College will host a virtual commencement ceremony at 4 p.m. Friday, May 21 to honor graduates. The community at large is invited, and graduates are welcome to celebrate on social media.

The state will allow overnight camps starting June 1.

Gov. Newsom, who is being subjected to recall, aims to fully reopen the state June 15, allowing conventions to resume with attendance capped 5,000.

The place to look for a vaccine is the state system at www.MyTurn.ca.gov.

Most health providers are on this platform, making it easier to track California’s vaccination progress.

But federally qualified health care centers such as Salud Para La Gente and Santa Cruz Community Health are not using MyTurn, so to get an appointment there, go to santacruzhealth.org, click on vaccines and follow the directions.

Another source, supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control, is www.vaccinefinder.org.

Santa Cruz County health officials have prioritized equity, allocating 60 percent of its doses for the greater Watsonville area and its Latinx community, which has seen the most cases.

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has a campaign in Spanish to encourage educators, childcare workers and farmworkers get the vaccine. The information phone line is 831-466-5906.

The Toll

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 60,000 Californians.

Deaths in Santa Cruz County have leveled off at 204, with 50 percent of deaths at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, a percentage that was higher early in the pandemic.

Locally, 79 percent of those who died were age 70 or older and 77 percent had other health conditions – those percentages have remained stable.

A year after the pandemic began, with 27 million vaccine does administered and case rates plummeting, 38 counties are in the Red Tier and 38 in the Orange Tier.

On Wednesday, Santa Cruz County reported only four people hospitalized with COVID, none in intensive care. ••• County COVID Deaths 204

As of April 28

Age

90 and up: 56 • 80 to 89: 62 • 70 to 79: 43 60 to 69: 27 • 50 to 59: 5 • 40 to 49: 7 30 to 39: 4

Underlying Conditions

Yes: 158 • No: 46

Gender Male: 100 • Female: 104

Skilled Nursing/Residential Care Santa Cruz Post Acute: 20 Watsonville Post Acute: 18 Pacific Coast Manor: 14 Hearts & Hands Post Acute: 8 Sunshine Villa: 7 • Aegis: 4 Maple House 1: 4 Valley Convalescent: 4 Watsonville Nursing Center: 4 Montecito Manor: 3 • De Un Amor: 2 Dominican Oaks: 2 • Driftwood: 2 Hanover House: 2 • Maple House II: 2 Rachelle’s Home 1: 2 • La Posada: 1 Paradise Villa: 1 Rachelle’s Home II: 1 Valley Haven: 1 • Westwind: 1 Total: 103 Not at a facility: 101

COVID Cases by Town

Aptos: 804 • Ben Lomond: 119

Boulder Creek: 148 • Capitola: 459 Felton: 154 • Freedom: 988

Santa Cruz: 3,915 • Scotts Valley: 436

Soquel: 352 • Watsonville: 8,059 Unincorporated: 254 Under investigation: 280 Total: 15,968

Source: Santa Cruz County Public Health •••

Editor’s Note: Would you like to share your family’s COVID-19 story? Email Jondi Gumz at info@cyber-times.com or call 831688-7549 x17.

For details on what can open in the Orange Tier, see https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy.