Pasadena Unified School District trustees spent the end of the last school year fending off calls that they had been maneuvering behind closed doors to push a school merger plan through. The process unraveled with acknowledgements that some discussion around reshaping the district would be needed given the financial and enrollment realities facing PUSD.
That discussion begins Thursday night, Aug. 13, when trustees are scheduled to hold a special meeting to lay out the terms of what has been dubbed a “district transformation process” and potentially set out a timeline of how the process will unfold.
Thursday’s session was set in June when the Board voted 4-3 to replace a previous resolution that began the controversial school consolidation exploratory process.
After several meetings of a committee made up of community members, parents and district stakeholders, internal communications between some trustees unraveled and already under fire process. Committee members questioned the third party contractor’s approach to identifying potential mergers and questioned what benefits closures would have on the district’s financial future.
Trustees voted against moving forward with any proposed merger scenarios in May and opted to approve the replacement resolution one month later. Declining enrollment, which has driven PUSD’s financial troubles, created the impetus for exploring school mergers.
Back in January, when the Board voted to contract with a third party vendor to facilitate the merger exploratory process, Trustee Patrice Marshall McKenzie said she felt the use of the word consolidation in the board’s actions could put the district community on edge.
“I believe in being transparent and the underlying premise of this resolution was to close schools, so I do not feel comfortable calling it something other than it is,” Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said at the time.
Included in the agenda report for Thursday’s meeting was a recap of previous school closure processes going back to 2005. Jefferson Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Franklin Elementary and Wilson Middle School were the last set of sites to be closed.
Opponents of school mergers called the replacement resolution consolidation by a different name. At several meetings last spring, parents and students from schools being discussed as part of potential mergers protested outside Board of Education and consolidation committee meetings.
“The SCAC voted no on every closure scenario proposed. Let it go,” PUSD parent Lisa Kroese said at June Board meeting. “Restore trust in our community.”
Unlike last school year, the makeup of the Board of Education may change during the year. Three trustee district seats will be on the November ballot and Board President Tina Fredericks and Trustee Scott Harden were served intent to recall notices as a result of the merger process.
The recall elections will not be on the November ballot.
“This meeting was originally scheduled only as a study session. It appears that Board President Fredericks added action items and changed it into a special meeting with minimal notice, before school even starts,” PUSD parent Warren Bleeker said Wednesday afternoon. “My view is that Fredericks is attempting to fast track school closure before the November election.”
According to Thursday’s agenda, trustees have been tasked with:
-Defining the district transformation process-Approving the information used by board members to make any consolidation decisions-Approving the date for a Board vote on what schools to close/consolidate-Approving the committee structure and members to facilitate the transformation process-Approving the first agenda of the committee, which includes defining the scope of work
Thursday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on the KLRN Pasadena YouTube channel.