Santa Cruz County Local News: Education

A local farm is being modified to serve as a learning center for young students about progressive farming methods.

Nearly two years after the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to end the contract of a company providing ethnic studies training for teachers and administrators, an almost entirely new board unanimously agreed to reverse that decision Wednesday.

Think back 25 years ago to 2000: the first camera phone debuted (the J-SH04, with a ferocious 0.1-megapixel resolution); the clothing brand Hollister was introduced; the fourth book in the “Harry Potter” series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” was released, and Scotts Valley High School was born.

Nearly one year after she took the helm of the county’s largest school district, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Heather Contreras sat down with The Pajaronian to talk about her accomplishments, and the ongoing challenges facing the district.

A city parking lot at Cedar and Lincoln streets in Santa Cruz is slated to become a three-level library with housing and parking.

Cabrillo College students shared their commuting problems and outlined some solutions in a recent survey and Santa Cruz Local event with two local transportation advocates.

When Aptos High School Principal Alison Hanks-Sloan sent a letter on March 16 to the Pajaro Valley Unified School District community announcing she would not be returning for the 2025-26 school year—and that her last day will be June 30—district officials said only that “she resigned.”