Pajaro Valley Unified School District Highlights upgrades, future plans on the bus trip – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Watsonville – The Pajaro Valley Unified School District is only a month away from covering a turbulent academic year that is characterized by a mostly new school authority, and debates about budget cuts and ethnic study contracts.

Outside of the political area, however, the schools have also experienced major changes – mainly through projects that are financed according to measure L and plans for new projects, which are financed by measure M, which were approved by the voters in November. The district emphasized some of these transformations and new plans in a bus trip on Thursday, which brought in a small cohort of media reporters, representatives of the agency, head of the district department, Olivia Flores and Vice President Misty Navarro at five different locations.

Before the tour, superintendent Heather Contreras organized a breakfast in the meeting room of the district, consisting of egg bite, parfaits, muesli, cinnamon rolls and muffins. What was unique at this breakfast is that it was completely prepared by the department for food and nutritional services.

“Our students have that,” she said.

According to Contreras, many of the planned projects are a result of measure M, a 315 million dollar initiative, which the voters passed to improve the district premises. She said the district had 70 days to send the message to the voters.

“This is really a testimony to teamwork that exists at PVUSD,” she said. “You don't do a 70-day campaign without a large team of people behind it.”

Mar Vista elementary school

The first stop on the tour was the Mar Vista Elementary School, which will be extended to a TK 8 school in autumn. Contreras said that she suggested many to be closed because she was one of the smaller locations of the district with 275 students and the students lost to neighboring districts.

“We have had discussions about opportunities here,” she said. “It is actually a school that is in good condition. The classrooms are largely in good condition, the infrastructure is in good condition.”

Instead, Contreras said that the district asked the municipality in relation to it in Mar Vista if she became a TK 8 school, and the community supported it “overwhelming”. From next year, the school will add seventh grade and will then be completed in eighth grade from 2026-27. As part of this expansion, the school adds a new bathroom building behind the basketball courts.

In addition, headmistress Ronnie Platt said that the school recently set up a new playing field through a fundraising campaign that began before the Covid 19 pandemic. The majority of the work was spent to reproduce the field so that it had emptied rainwater.

“Every time it was raining, it simply turned into mud and we couldn't use it for weeks and it would just kill the grass,” he said. “They redesigned the whole grass and then laid a trace around them and made it so that it could also drain into the drainage area.”

Aptos high school

Sergio Ambriz – the deputy director of maintenance, operation and facilities of the district – said that the classification was carried out on some streets of the school, and the gas lines were improved. One of Aptos High's largest projects is an update of the boiler system.

“It is really the original boiler system that has been available since the opening of the school,” said Herlindo Fernandez, director of maintenance, operation and facilities of the district.

The deputy director Rachael Jones said the heating was an important problem on campus.

“The building, the heating, hardly works,” she said. “Our classrooms freeze.”

Fernandez also said that the sidewalks and wooden stairs in the D building worsen. Ambriz said the district explores various options, including pressure treatment, grinding of the wood or replacing with steel or aluminum.

“We just look at options,” he said. “We have to see how much it will cost.”

Pajaro Valley High School

Director Todd Wilson showed both the school's sports field opened in 2021 and an empty field near the main entrance, which will soon be the first performing art center in the 20-year history of Pajaro Valley High. Contreras described it as the “Marquee project” for measure M.

“Our community is excited, our children are excited, our alumni say:” Wow, finally! Yay! “, Said Wilson.

While Pajaro Valley High has a program for performing arts in a small classroom, the students can attach their own productions. Although the center is under construction in the next two years, Wilson said that the program would have a mobile stage that would enable the services in the community, also in the middle schools.

In order to further reduce the project, a sign with three artistic renderings, which were selected by students, was released at the center of the center. Wilson said it was an ideal place for the sign.

“If someone was here, you know that our traffic is not so wonderful, but there is enough time to see the website every morning,” he said.

EA Hall Middle School

As one of the oldest locations in the district, which was built in 1938, Contreras said a goal of repairing the interior of the school and at the same time maintaining its historical character. The corridors have been repainted and have new vinyl wood flooring, and the district also examines additional renovation work in the interiors.

The spokeswoman for the district, Alicia Jimenez, said when some funds of the measures were left, the district asked the municipality whether they wanted to repair the interior in EA Hall or receive a new sporting field. The community chose the field that opened in 2022.

“Mess M gave us the opportunity to really concentrate on the inside of the school,” she said.

Ha Hyde primary school

The school recently received a repaved common area and a new siding in the classrooms. Future plans include the repair of the roofs and windows, the replacement of the soil in the cafeteria and upgrading the play structure, the Ambriz still functional, but age.

“We can no longer get parts for you how old you are,” he said.

Ambriz added that the game equipment looked at a complete replacement.

At the end of the tour, Contreras repeated that many great things are going on in the district.

“I know that there have been some really challenging times and we will have challenging times,” she said. “This is exactly where we are and there our schools in California are up and down, but we also have amazing things, and dimensions M is one of these great show cases that we will see in the next five years.”