Stockton Unified hires new superintendent. Find out about her background

Stockton Unified leaders have picked a new superintendent, beginning a new era at the largest school district in the city.

Michelle Rodriguez was chosen after a three-month “accelerated” search. Rodriguez will come to Stockton from Pajaro Valley Unified School District, serving roughly 20,000 students in Santa Cruz County, where she’s been superintendent since 2016.

Rodriguez is expected to be at the June 6 Stockton Unified Board of Trustees meeting, where the board will formally vote on her appointment.

"I am confident that we have the best candidate of the pool that we had,” Stockton Unified Board President AngelAnn Flores told The Record. Rodriguez beat out 25 applicants during a three-month community-involved search for Stockton Unified's next leader.

“She comes with budget experience and consistency, which is something that was important to us when making the decision,” Flores said. “We were looking for somebody who was willing to invest in longevity into our district.”

Rodriguez left the Santa Cruz area Friday with a word of praise for her time there.

"Together, we have built a district committed to excellence, resilience and growth," Rodriguez said in a statement. "I now that the imprints of our shared successes will guide me as I advocate for over 36,000 students daily in SUSD."

New Stockton school superintendent an award winner

In 2021, Rodriguez was named her region’s superintendent of the year by the Association of California School Administrators.

A Watsonville and Pajaro Valley local paper, The Pajaronian, credits Rodriguez with strengthening Pajaro USD’s Career Technical Education programs and the adoption of the Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community initiative, “an educational philosophy that combines academic learning with several other aspects such as socio-emotional health and physical well-being.”

The Pajaronian also reported on her work that led to increased literacy scores with the implementation of the Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words (SIPPS.)

English test scores at Pajaro USD rose during Rodriguez’s first few years as superintendent but have since declined — as they have statewide — to 27.20% of students meeting or exceeding standards post-pandemic, three points below where they started when she took the job in 2016.

Rodriguez sees herself in the superintendent role as a “connector to support the community” and has a history of working with nonprofits and community partners in the Pajaro Valley, she told Digital Nest’s Jacob Martinez, who will soon be bringing his nonprofit to Stockton.

In her interview with Martinez, Rodriquez said leading a school district through the pandemic reaffirmed the importance of communication, “that people feel heard and that there’s clear, two-way communication.”

Michelle Rodriguez comes to Stockton schools with baggage 

EdSource reports Rodriguez was well-liked in Pajaro Valley; in January 2021 her firing on a 4-3 vote by the Pajaro board of trustees took community members and school administrators by surprise.

Community backlash was swift, EdSource reported, and nine Santa Cruz County superintendents wrote a letter singing her praises and slamming the district for their lack of transparency in her termination, an “unusual gesture.”

Just days later, Rodriguez was reinstated, and the Pajaro board of trustees voted to replace their president and vice president.

The circumstances of Rodriguez’s temporary dismissal in 2021 are not publicly known.

The Pajaronian reported Rodriguez was named in a 2022 wrongful death lawsuit stemming from an August 2021 incident when a Pajaro USD student was stabbed to death on campus at Aptos High School.

Under Rodriguez’s leadership, the district eliminated the “school resource officer program” in July 2020, the Pajaronian reported, which removed Watsonville Police officers and Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies from school campuses.

After the student’s death, the program was reinstated and law enforcement returned to campuses, The Pajaronian reported.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton Unified taps Michelle Rodriguez as next superintendent