Schools
PVUSD Board Censures Trustee Acosta, Disavows Her Actions
She missed a year's worth of meetings, skirted duties and tried to remove the schools chief without getting board approval, the board said.
WATSONVILLE, CA — The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board voted Wednesday night to censure Trustee Georgia Acosta. The vote came two months after she apparently led the charge to remove Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez from her post.
The resolution to censure Acosta passed on a 4-1 vote, with Trustee Oscar Soto dissenting and Trustee Daniel Dodge Jr. abstaining because he said he was not on the board at the time of Acosta's numerous absences, which were also mentioned in the resolution. Dodge and Soto — who did not explain why he voted against the resolution — were among those who voted with Acosta to oust Rodriguez.
The vote meant that Acosta's colleagues issued a "stern condemnation ... for behaviors or actions that violate laws or policies" and disapproved of her "unacceptable conduct," according to the resolution.
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Acosta was not present at the meeting. Patch reached out to her for comment.
Some of those who spoke in public comment supported Acosta and her vote to terminate Rodriguez, but most disavowed her actions, including Monterey County Supervisor Luis A. Alejo, who serves the Salinas area. Alejo joined others in the community in calling for her resignation.
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"Georgia Acosta's record is one of the worst I've seen in all my years in politics by any elected official," Alejo said. "I would also urge her to stop embarrassing herself and resign now. Trustee Area 2 deserves better leadership and someone who will take this school board role seriously. Enough is enough!"
Acosta contacted attorneys for help in terminating Rodriguez's contract in January and accrued legal expenses totaling $16,000 without getting approval from her colleagues, according to the resolution approved by the board Wednesday night. The district will not be responsible for paying those fees, the board decided this month.
Acosta independently arranged for a virtual board meeting on an unauthorized, unsecured platform and prevented Rodriguez from attending the Jan. 27 meeting where the board voted 4-3 to terminate her contract, the resolution said.
Acosta, who holds the trustee Area 2 seat, was board president at the time. She did not tell her colleagues in advance that she intended to try to oust Rodriguez, but did seek advice from and share confidential information about her plans with a resident and former district employee, according to the resolution.
During Wednesday's meeting, Trustee Kimberly De Serpa showed an email Acosta sent from her California State University, Monterey Bay work email address to two community members on Jan. 23, which included a revised board agenda. Acosta's "fatal flaw" was sending the email to a former school employee's PVUSD email address, which he could no longer use.
"I don't understand why these two men are being asked by Georgia for counsel," De Serpa said during the meeting.
The attached agenda was supposed to include an item about the district budget, but Acosta removed it, De Serpa said. The presentation on the district's budget would have been a positive one, and it's unclear why Acosta would have removed the agenda item, she said.
The email was sent four days before the board ultimately voted to oust Rodriguez.
Acosta approached staff in an attempt to stop public comment on Rodriguez's removal during a special board meeting held Jan. 29 to select an interim superintendent, according to the resolution. That behavior is not allowed, De Serpa said.
Rodriguez was reinstated days later during a meeting on Jan. 31 following community outcry condemning Acosta, Dodge, Soto and Jennifer Schacher for voting in favor of her removal. At the same meeting, Acosta was removed from her role as president and replaced by Area 7 Trustee Jennifer Holm.
The resolution also said that Acosta has missed 26 board meetings — more than a year's worth of meetings — and left six early. She has not participated in any board committees since she was elected to her seat in 2016.
De Serpa said that Acosta continues to receive a stipend and full benefits for her family despite these absences.
"In my 11 years, I have missed two board meetings. I would like to point out that in eight years, Trustee Orozco has missed three meetings due to the births of the three children that she had while she was a sitting board member," De Serpa said during the meeting. "I want everybody to think about that for a minute. I had a root canal and showed up for a board meeting."
In 2018 Acosta was accused of violating the Brown Act, which is California's law ensuring that meetings of government officials are open to the public. The board resolved the complaint by agreeing to participate in district-funded training on the Brown Act, but Acosta skipped the training sessions, according to the resolution.
"Where was Trustee Acosta? She was thumbing her nose at all of us," De Serpa said.
Acosta's colleagues have called on her to attend meetings unless excused and stop engaging in disrespectful treatment of her colleagues, district employees and members of the public. The board also called on Acosta to participate in board committees and training, understand her role and follow laws and board rules.
More than 200 people had signed a petition as of Thursday morning calling for Acosta to step down or face recall.
The petition said that Acosta claimed she and her family were the subject of violent threats after the vote to remove Rodriguez. The Watsonville Police Department and Monterey County Sheriff's Office confirmed to Patch in recent days that they still have no records of such reports being filed with their agencies.
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