The seventh and final meeting of the Pasadena Unified School District will take place on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, where it aims to vote on sending school merger recommendations to the Board of Education. The school merger process has faced criticism and backlash from parents, teachers, and students, who have expressed concerns over the consolidation and district's financial situation.
Site of the former Pasadena Unified School District ’s, Roosevelt Elementary School, which closed in 2019 taken on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. will be holding its seventh and final meeting, where it is scheduled to vote on sending school merger recommendations to the Board of Education ..
How PUSD manages its school sites and bond dollars have been two areas of discussion around the ongoing merger talks. Pasadena Unified School District schools being proposed for consolidation include McKinley School seen here in Pasadena on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. The process, kicked off by a Board of Education vote in January has faced strong criticism and backlash from parents, teachers and students.
They’ve taken issue with the execution of that process, led by a third-party consultant and defended individual schools, citing unique learning environments and longstanding community hubs that make those sites unique. The consultant has suggested that there could be benefits to certain mergers of schools, both financially for the district as a whole but also academically for the students the district serves. At Pasadena Unified, school consolidation could be a ‘growth model,’ consultant says.
Parents say not so fast Consolidation is one piece of an ongoing effort to pull PUSD out a financial tailspin. Declining enrollment, deficit spending, rising costs, the expiration of one-time COVID-19 relief dollars and uncertainty of state and federal funding have left the district in about a $30 million hole. Amid the process, questions over how consolidation would impact the district’s assets have echoed through meetings on the topic.
Q: What school sites are currently being considered to close or lose students? The Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee will be voting on the following scenarios:Merge Webster Elementary School to Longfellow Elementary School and Norma Coombs Elementary School OR Merge Norma Coombs to Webster Merge Eliot Arts Magnet and McKinley School and close McKinley .
McKinley elementary grade students would go to Hamilton, Madison or Washington Merge Thurgood Marshall 9th-12th grade with Pasadena High School and Marshall 6th-8th grade stays at MarshallMerge Blair 9th-12th with Muir High School and Blair 6th-8th with Octavia E. Butler Middle School ORQ: What has PUSD done with schools that have been closed in previous consolidation processes? District officials have pointed to the former Roosevelt and Linda Vista elementary school sites as examples of how it plans to reuse and repurpose vacant schools.
The Roosevelt site is being developed into workforce housing and requests for proposals to develop Linda Vista were issued this year. The plan is to retain a public park on the site.
In addition, PUSD said it uses closed school sites for district schools and programs, leases and temporary relocation sites for schools undergoing campus renovation.
“PUSD’s Asset Management Plan , launched in 2024, optimizes the use of district properties to generate revenue that supports students and schools while prioritizing school functions and community needs,” the district said in a statement. In most of the scenarios, the school being merged into another school currently provides another use for the district. McKinley School is the only school included in the TK-8th grade scenarios that is being proposed to be closed completely.
In the secondary school scenarios, three options involving Blair include all high school students going to Pasadena High School or John Muir High School and all middle school students going to either Marshall or Octavia E. Butler Magnet. Per state guidance around school consolidations, any school closure recommendation to consider a plan for a site post-closure to avoid blight.
“The District is evaluating all closed and underutilized properties as part of its long-term asset management planning,” the district said in a statement. “This includes reviewing maintenance costs, safety concerns, potential blight, lease revenue, joint use opportunities, and whether any property should be repurposed. ”According to the district, any impacts would depend on which sites, if any, are recommended for consolidation and how the district decides to use those properties.
For each closure scenario presented by consulting firm Total School Solutions, an estimated bond savings were included. In 2023, the district adopted aIn 2024, voters approved Measure EE, a general obligation bond, and Measure R, a parcel tax. Q: Could PUSD sell closed schools to help address its ongoing financial crisis? How much money could be made and would it be worth it?
Any sale of property would generate one-time revenue that can only be used for buildings including capital outlay or maintenance of school district property and would not be able to bolster PUSD’s general fund. District officials would not provide an estimate of what the sale of a school site would generate.
“The District also has to consider ongoing expenditures, long-term educational needs, and ongoing revenue from leases, which may better serve students and the District over time,” the district said in a statement. Jury rules in LA’s favor in accidental police shooting of teen at Burlington store in North HollywoodFirst eyed 6 decades ago, history-making D-Line subway opens first leg FridayBob Morales, older brother of rock legend Ritchie Valens, dies at 81Last resorts in Primm, the former State Line at California-Nevada border, to close permanentlySparks 2026 roster breakdown – who’s gone, who’s back and who’s new
Pasadena Unified School District Merger Consultant Financial Issues Assets School Consolidation
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