Updated on April 22
A school district just south of Santa Cruz has approved a contract for teacher training with a controversial left-leaning consulting group that has drawn fierce opposition from mainstream Jewish groups for its ties to anti-Zionist activism.
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board passed the agreement on April 16 during a rancorous public meeting, where a handful of Jewish community members raised alarm about what they perceive to be ideological bias and anti-Israel animosity from the consulting group and its supporters. Meanwhile, proponents of the contract decried what they view as a right-wing assault on social justice-oriented education from pro-Israel activists.
The Anti-Defamation League characterized some statements by board members at the meeting as “blatant antisemitism.”
Tempers flared, and some board members took aim at Jewish opponents of the contract.
“I don’t see you people at protests against immigration,” said an irate Gabriel Medina, a board member. “I don’t see you at protests when people are being taken away right now. I don’t see you advocating to bring back [Kilmar Armando] Abrego Garcia or Mahmoud Khalil,” referring to the Maryland resident wrongfully deported to El Salvador and to the Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist detained by immigration authorities.
“I don’t see you guys doing that. You only show up to meetings when it’s beneficial for you, so you can tell brown people who they are,” Medina added.
“I’ve been a little bit taken aback,” said board member Joy Flynn, “by the lack of acknowledgement of the economic power historically held by the Jewish community.” Speaking of “black and brown people,” she added, “they have people power,” but “there is that economic power that really does exist.”
Marc Levine, ADL’s regional director based in San Francisco, spoke out strongly against the statements from board members after reviewing a video of the meeting. He added that the board “owes the Jewish community an apology.”
“The raw antisemitism that was on display at the Pajaro Valley USD board meeting is abhorrent and dangerous,” Levine said April 17 in a statement on X. “Most disturbing was that the rhetoric came from elected board members. What does that say about their willingness to allow ethnic studies to be used as a gateway for antisemitism to seep into their classrooms?”
The school district responded on April 22 in a statement emailed to J. from Superintendent Heather Contreras.
“PVUSD stands firmly against all forms of racism, antisemitism, and hate,” the statement said. “We are aware of concerns raised regarding recent remarks, and we want to be clear about the values that guide our district. PVUSD is committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for all students, families, educators, and community members — regardless of background, race, religion, or identity.”
Contreras added, “PVUSD will continue to work with our diverse communities to ensure our schools reflect the values we expect from our leaders and instill in our students.”
Pajaro Valley school district, which is based in Watsonville, serves just over 17,500 students, 84% of whom are Hispanic or Latino, according to the California Department of Education. Nearly 40% are English language learners, and students struggle with proficiency in math and English, per a state dashboard, which rates student proficiency in both categories as in the “red,” or “very low.”
The board’s approval of the contract, for $90,000 to train administrators and teachers next school year, marked a decisive win for left-leaning advocates amid a yearslong ideological fight over the subject of ethnic studies that has roiled California politics since it burst onto the stage as a hot-button issue in 2019.
The vote also came as moderate political groups and mainstream Jewish organizations are advocating for a new state bill, AB 1468, to codify standards for ethnic studies, the study of race and ethnicity with a focus on people of color. The bill is opposed by anti-Zionist groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations Bay Area and Jewish Voice for Peace.
The consulting group that won the Pajaro Valley contract is called Community Responsive Education (CRE), whose founder and co-director is Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, a professor of ethnic studies at San Francisco State University.
Tintiangco-Cubales has been on the front lines of the ethnic studies debate since 2019, when she was instrumental in fashioning the first attempt at a statewide model curriculum for ethnic studies for widespread use. That model came under attack from groups such as the ADL, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area for its support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and for its neglect of antisemitism and Jewish history.
The model has since been revised to remove BDS support and to include a discussion of antisemitism and sample lessons on American Jews, focusing on Jews of color. However, school districts are not required to use the state’s model curriculum. Meanwhile, a network of educational consultants like Tintiangco-Cubales are advocating for what they consider to be authentic ethnic studies, which emerged out of left-wing activist movements of the 1960s.
Part of the concern surrounding CRE are its ties to the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, where Tintiangco-Cubales is listed as a member of the leadership team. The Liberated consortium is a left-wing educational organization that has partnered with anti-Zionist activists to boost ethnic studies curricula that it views as grounded in anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism.
Among the Jewish community members who spoke at the Pajaro Valley meeting was Rabbi Debbie Israel, a Watsonville resident and rabbi emerita of Congregation Emeth in Morgan Hill. The rabbi spoke against the contract with CRE because she worried that it will carry anti-Israel bias into the public schools.
“I’ve heard some hateful and hurtful things this evening and I hope to address them,” she said. “Judaism is not just a religion but also a people who have lived in the land of Israel since the time of Abraham, the first Jew,” she said. “Ethnic studies should respect the right of Indigenous people for self determination. Yet CRE attempts to deny this right to the Jewish people.”
Pajaro Valley had worked with CRE before, but its contract was not renewed in September 2023 amid antisemitism concerns, according to the Santa Cruz Lookout, a local news website. Since then the makeup of the board has changed. The recent vote was unanimous and came after months of activism from CRE supporters, the Lookout reported.
JIMENA, or Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, a nonprofit that advocates for Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews, spoke out against Pajaro Valley’s decision in a phone call with J. on April 21.
“We want to see unbiased, rigorous, high-quality education that does not malign or target any one community and accuse them of being racist and white supremacist,” executive director Sarah Levin said. “We are not.”
Tintiangco-Cubales expressed relief after the school board’s vote in a text message exchange with the Santa Cruz Lookout. CRE did not immediately respond to J.’s request for comment.
“The community of Pajaro Valley made this happen!” she told the outlet. “They didn’t give up! I am eternally grateful for all they did. The community is Ethnic Studies! They put Ethnic Studies into praxis!” she added, using a word that means translating academic theory into the real world.
The agreement sets out a plan to develop ethnic studies content for teachers in the district, including training on central concepts like “systemic racism and resistance to racism,” “understanding power, privilege, and oppression” and “social movements and community organizing.”