Two candidates are seeking the Area 7 seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees, representing La Selva Beach, Rio del Mar and adjacent Central Coast communities.
Misty Navarro
Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Misty Navarro says voters can look at her nearly two years on the board to see what she would bring to another term.
Navarro, the incumbent in the race for the Trustee Area 7 seat, was appointed to the board in October 2024. Now running her first campaign for the position, she said she recently went back and watched the interview she gave before trustees selected her.
“I have stuck by everything I said that I would do while in office, and I’m proud of that,” she said.
Navarro said she has spent recent weeks fundraising, building a campaign website, collecting endorsements and talking with community members, all while balancing the campaign with her full-time job and being a mother.
She said her approach on the board has remained consistent, particularly as trustees have faced difficult financial decisions.
When she was interviewed for the appointment in 2024, Navarro said she was asked how she would approach a tough budget decision. She said then that she would look for redundancies, consider how many students would be affected and pay particular attention to vulnerable populations.
She also said she would seek decisions that might not satisfy everyone but could be defended and applied consistently.
“That’s what I’ve been since I’ve been on that board,” Navarro said. “I’ve been very consistent where I want to improve our academics, have very clear accountability measures, keep our schools psychologically and physically safe and at the same time have some accountability on all parts.”
That accountability, she said, should extend “from the district office all the way down to the students.”
Navarro represents Trustee Area 7, which includes the Central Coast, La Selva Beach and Rio del Mar.
Her tenure has included difficult budget decisions and a sometimes contentious atmosphere among trustees.
Navarro said she believes some of that tension has eased, particularly among the board’s five women.
“I feel like the women of the board have learned to work collaboratively together,” she said.
Navarro pointed to the board’s work developing goals and guardrails for Superintendent Heather Contreras as an example. The process is intended to give the superintendent clear direction and establish measures the board can use to track the district’s progress, particularly on academics.
“The five women trustees have been involved in that work since the beginning, and I’m really proud of that,” Navarro said.
The board’s public disagreements, however, have at times overshadowed its work. Navarro has been involved in clashes during meetings and said she has been called names and had what she described as “pretty horrible things” said about her.
Asked about the current atmosphere, Navarro said she has focused on controlling her own behavior rather than responding.
“I can only be responsible for my part, and I have chosen to not engage,” she said. “I can only control my own reactions and behavior.”
Navarro said she believes the characterizations of her made during some of those exchanges have been inaccurate, but she does not intend to fight over them.
“I know who I am, and really it’s not my business what other people think of me,” she said.
Navarro said she has not yet begun knocking on doors for the campaign, but has been speaking with people in her community. From those conversations, she said, she believes constituents have grown tired of the conflict.
“They don’t have a stomach for this anymore,” she said.
What they want instead, Navarro said, is for trustees to focus on the work of the district.
“What they care about is getting stuff done,” she said.
Navarro said people have also approached her at places such as grocery stores and UPS to thank her for her work and ask why she continues serving despite the criticism she has received.
Her answer, she said, is straightforward.
“I do it because I care, and I’m not gonna be bullied,” Navarro said.
The district continues to face significant challenges. During Navarro’s tenure, trustees have approved layoffs and other reductions as they worked to address a budget deficit. The district is also grappling with declining enrollment and the possibility of closing or consolidating schools.
At the same time, trustees have been trying to shift more attention toward student achievement, including literacy, math and college readiness.
Navarro said her priorities remain improving academics, creating clear accountability measures and maintaining physically and psychologically safe schools, while ensuring decisions account for students who are most affected.
She said the goals and guardrails work is an important part of moving the board away from conflict and toward those responsibilities.
For Navarro, the campaign is also an opportunity to ask voters to judge her on the decisions she has made since joining the board rather than what she promised before taking office.
She acknowledged that those decisions have not always pleased everyone.
But that, she said, was part of what she told trustees to expect when they appointed her: When confronted with difficult choices, she would weigh the effects on students, look closely at the district’s systems and seek an outcome she could defend consistently.
Mads Realmuto
Mads Realmuto says the first weeks of the new school year have reinforced his decision to run for the Trustee Area 7 seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees.
Realmuto, an Aptos resident, said he has been talking with parents and other community members as his campaign gets underway.
“Overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received,” he said.
But Realmuto said the start of school has also brought concerns about staffing, particularly in special education, an issue that helped spur his decision to run.
Realmuto said he has learned that the district’s special education department recently requested that human resources immediately hire roughly 13 additional one-on-one aides, instructional aides or behavior technicians.
The shortage has been significant enough, he said, that district office employees have been sent to schools to provide one-on-one support.
Realmuto also said he is aware of at least one case in which a student was sent home because there was no employee available to provide needed support.
He pointed to the situation as an example of why the district needs a board that can work collaboratively with Superintendent Heather Contreras while scrutinizing the effects of budget decisions.
“These are exactly the cuts that we were trying to argue against back in, what was that, November,” he said.
Realmuto’s advocacy around special education predates his campaign.
He began regularly attending board meetings after struggling to secure appropriate services for his special-needs daughter, who had five teachers at Bradley Elementary School within a year. He later joined the Special Education Local Plan Area board and began speaking during public comment at school board meetings.
Realmuto said those experiences gave him a close look at the district’s special education system and eventually helped convince him to seek office.
As he talks to parents during the campaign, Realmuto said special education continues to emerge as a significant concern.
“I’ve been blown away by how many people have touch points into special education at the district, whether they’re former teachers, whether they had children grow up in the program,” he said.
Those people, he said, have expressed alarm about recent changes within the district.
Realmuto said he is also hearing broader concerns about district organization and employee morale.
“There’s a lot of concern around the morale and treatment of our teachers and staff,” he said.
Realmuto said improving student outcomes requires ensuring teachers and other employees have adequate support.
“Effective education isn’t going to happen without teachers who are supported and happy,” he said.
Realmuto has a background in international public affairs and trade relations, experience he says could help him navigate complex policy questions and disagreements among trustees.
He has criticized the board’s interpersonal conflicts and said trustees should be able to challenge district decisions while maintaining a productive relationship with the superintendent.
Realmuto said he sees another example of the need for greater scrutiny in the district’s approach to high school math.
He praised recent math and reading results, pointing specifically to results at Aptos and Pajaro Valley high schools.
But he questioned why PVUSD is introducing a new math curriculum across all four years of high school at the same time those results are improving. Realmuto said some teachers opposed the change.
“If we’re seeing results, why are we changing the curriculum?” he said. “And why is that where we’re spending money?”
Realmuto said he worries the board is not doing enough due diligence when considering such decisions.
“Because our board isn’t one that is collaborating effectively and not collaborating well with our superintendent, we’re not catching these things,” he said.
That, Realmuto said, can lead the district to spend money in areas where it could instead be keeping employees and resources closer to classrooms.
Realmuto has previously said the district should focus more resources on smaller class sizes and teacher training. He has also called for greater emphasis on career technical education and less reliance on computers in classrooms.
But special education remains central to his candidacy, both because of his family’s experience and because of what he says he is hearing from other families.
Realmuto said voters he has spoken with appear to have a greater awareness of the district’s challenges than he expected.
He said he hopes a new board can improve collaboration while providing stronger oversight of district decisions, particularly when they affect staffing and classroom services.
Realmuto also said he is optimistic about the field of candidates seeking four PVUSD board seats this year.
“I do think we’re lucky that we’ve got some strong candidates in all four districts,” he said.
And regardless of how much turnover the election brings, Realmuto said he believes the district will have an opportunity to move forward.
“No matter what, if we see turnover on the board,” he said, “I think we’re going to be in a good place.”
