PVUSD Board, Family Members Receive Threats After Controversy

WATSONVILLE, CA — Two members of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District board who voted to terminate Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez have received violent threats against themselves and their families.

Rodriguez got her job back Sunday, days after the board decided Wednesday on a 4-3 vote to oust her, with trustees Georgia Acosta, Daniel Dodge Jr., Jennifer Schacher and Oscar Soto voting in favor of her removal. Kimberly De Serpa, Jennifer Holm and Maria Orozco cast the dissenting votes.

Trustees Acosta and Soto were threatened, said PVUSD spokesperson Alicia Jimenez.

In a statement Tuesday, she and board President Jennifer Holm condemned the threats and said the district would work with law enforcement as necessary.

"For the trustees who have experienced threats of violence against themselves and their families, we want you to know that you have the full support of the board in pursuing a criminal investigation of this felonious behavior," Rodriguez and Holm said in a news release. "We, as a society, can and must be better than that, and while we may disagree - however fiercely - that kind of threat should never be tolerated."

News of the threats came days after the board voted to rescind its unexplained firing of Rodriguez. There was an outpouring of community support for the ousted schools chief.

More than 2,200 people signed a petition to bring Rodriguez back and demand transparency regarding the reasons why she was terminated in the first place. If not, petitioners supported a future recall effort for the four board members who sought Rodriguez's removal.

"They provided no warning, no forum for public comment prior to termination, or information as to why Dr. Rodriguez was terminated," wrote Megan Jacobsmeyer, a Mar Vista Elementary School library media technician who posted the petition on Change.org.

Actor Edward James Olmos was among those who spoke up in support of the superintendent, Lookout Santa Cruz reported. The actor, who works with PVUSD students as part of his program Youth Cinema Project, said he'd long known the superintendent, who had his "utmost respect and admiration," the news site reported.

A Sunday night statement from Rodriguez and the board thanked the community for its involvement, and said the four board members who voted for her dismissal "were swayed by the outpouring of support for Dr. Rodriguez." The statement thanked Rodriguez for her willingness to return.

"If there is a lesson to be learned in the events of this last week, it is that to be human we will occasionally make mistakes, but to be a strong human is to acknowledge and correct our mistakes," the statement read. "Tonight, our Board showed its strength by correcting a mistake. We ask for the community's understanding to allow these lessons to come to fruition with grace."