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Lois Lopez works in the Scotts Valley Middle School office under the... (Bill Lovejoy/Sentinel)


The three-day series takes an in-depth look at education in Santa Cruz County in a time of unprecedented financial hardship | About the series

WATSONVILLE — Pajaro Val ley school district groundskeeper Michael Rebelo is learning how to say “no” these days.

He has to. Rebelo is one of just 13 remaining groundskeepers in a sprawling district that had 19 last year.

He hits two schools each day, traveling in a rusting, district -issue 1982 Ford F-250, which he calls “a hazard to the road.” Rebelo, 30, said he is happy to have a job, but hopes some of the groundskeepers who were laid off can be hired back.

It’s tough to spend four hours at a school and keep telling teach ers and principals he doesn’t have time to do the extra landscaping duties they want done, he said.

“It’s pretty much mow, blow and go,” said Rebelo, who earns $13.85 an hour. “We are running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and I think we are underpaid for the work we do.”

In lean funding years, school leaders strive to keep budget cuts away from the classroom. Rebelo is one example of what happens when the budget ax falls else where.

In the third year of plummet ing funding for education, losses are being keenly felt in school counseling, library and adminis trative offices and seen in deteriorating building and overgrown landscaping.

In June, state Superinten dent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell released sur vey results of 387 school dis tricts showing that 65 percent had cut building and grounds maintenance budgets, 58 percent cut district admin istration and 48 percent cut counselors, nurses or psy­