Virginia Alvarez Resigns from Santa Barbara Unified School Board

[Updated: Tue., Nov. 28, 2023, 10am]

Virginia Alvarez has resigned from the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Trustees, effective Monday, November 27. 

Alvarez, a human resources manager for the Montecito Union School District, served for three years after being elected in December 2020 as an “at-large” representative. The district converted to Trustee Area elections in February 2022, which will make her seat Trustee Area 5. Her seat is up for election in November 2024. 

After moving with her parents from Mexico as a child, Alvarez grew up in Santa Barbara Unified — she attended McKinley Elementary School, La Cumbre Junior High, and San Marcos High School before attending Santa Barbara City College. 

“Ms. Alvarez has been a strong voice for our students and families and will be very much missed,” said Board President Wendy Sims-Moten.

Alvarez gave the district notice this past Sunday that she would be resigning effective this Monday. She was scheduled to take over as president of the board next week and would serve out the remaining year on her term in that position. This adds yet another unexpected element to a district already beset by a high degree of tumult and turnover. 

“Life throws things at you that you cannot control,” Alvarez said in an early-morning interview on Tuesday. “There are things you can’t control and you can never get back.”

Alvarez alluded to family health issues she needed to tend to. “This is what I need to do. You can never get this time back.”

On the board, Alvarez was the most openly critical and questioning of Superintendent Hilda Maldonado and her leadership style and was especially vocal in her support of teachers and as an advocate for fiscal restraint and not dipping into the district’s reserves. With contract negotiations between the teachers’ union and the district having achieved an unprecedented level of contention, Alvarez might have found herself caught between the rock and a hard place of her own values.

“Had I been able to stay, I would have looked at the entire budget from top to bottom to see where we could have found the money,” she said.

The board has 60 days to appoint a replacement to complete the rest of Alvarez’s term and will discuss and decide on the next steps for filling the vacancy at the December 13 school board meeting, the district said. Since the seat is still at-large, Alvarez’s replacement can reside anywhere in the district’s boundaries.

If the board decides not to appoint a replacement, then the seat will be vacant until the board elections in November 2024.