By Jon Chown
Carol Turley is the new president of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees after a tense meeting Thursday in which the audience continually heckled the board.
With a decision on whether to make huge cuts in the budget later in the agenda, the board tackled the issue of leadership at the beginning of the meeting. Four trustees threw their hat in the ring: Carol Turley, Misty Navarro, Joy Flynn and Gabriel Medina.
Carol Turley
Minutes after verbally attacking his fellow trustees Misty Navarro and Olivia Flores, along with Superintendent Heather Contreras, accusing them of conspiring in various misdeeds and conflicts of interests, Medina made a long appeal to the board to lead it. “Look at my record as proof of how I lead,” he asked the board. “I am ready to move this district forward.”
Navarro said she was good at controlling chaos, and so would be well suited to lead the board. She also said Medina was not qualified, as the chair would need to work with the superintendent and he had defamed and threatened her. Navarro was heckled by the crowd, and quite a few criticized her during public comment. It visibly affected her, and Board President Flores asked the crowd to be respectful.
Joy Flynn followed with a powerful speech. She said she didn’t like to brag about what she has done for the community, but went into a long list of the many volunteer positions she has held, such as being a board member of Second Harvest Food Bank, a commissioner on the county Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and an organizer of racial justice protests. “I’ve been a very active community member and I’ve made a lot of change that many of you don’t know about,” she said.
Community members mostly spoke in favor of Medina, while a few pointed out that Flynn appeared to be the one trustee that was able to get along with everyone on the board. During public comment, a community member made an accusation of sexual misconduct against a family member of a board member. The charge prompted a five-minute recess by the board.
After the recess, the board returned more somber and got down to business. Turley’s nomination received the first board vote and she was elected with a 6-1 approval. The lone vote against her was Medina.
Turley said as new board president that she wanted to hold listening sessions for the board to hear from the public outside of meetings, but that she also needed to be sure the board can complete its business at its board meetings. Time limits on comments would be set, she said, for both public comment and trustees’ comments.
The decision for vice president was more contentious. Navarro, Medina and Flynn all wanted the position, but none could get the fourth vote until Carrasco relented on her first choice of Medina and voted for Flynn.