Pasadena Unified trustees vote to explore school consolidation

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education Thursday, Jan. 22, approved a contract with an outside consultant to explore school closure or consolidation in response to a decade of declining enrollment fueling an ongoing financial crisis.

In a 5-2 vote, with Trustees Jennifer Hall Lee and Michelle Richardson Bailey voting no, the Board of Education approved a contract not to exceed $233,300 with Total School Solutions to move forward with a closure/consolidation study.

Trustee Patrice Marshall McKenzie said including the the word consolidation in the board’s action was problematic and could put the PUSD community on edge.

At its Dec. 11 meeting, the Board of Education approved a resolution that directed Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco to develop and bring forward a proposed district transformation planning process that would potentially include consolidation scenarios. It passed 4-3 with Hall Lee, Bailey and McKenzie voting no.

Blanco said the resolution led to the pursuit of a contract with Total School Solutions to have a external and unbiased expertise to guide the transformation process. Total School Solutions is a an educational consulting firm based in Fairfield.

“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,” Blanco said.

Declining enrollment, rising costs and uncertainty in state and federal funding have combined to leave the district with a deficit in the millions that has required multiple rounds of cuts to teachers, school based services, the central office and contracts.

Applications to join the Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee will be open until 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 9. To apply, visit pusd.us/SSCAC.

The committee is scheduled to meet seven times starting on Monday, Feb. 23 from 5-7 p.m. Those meetings will culminate with the committee recommending school closures, if any, to the Board of Education in May.

During this process the district will conduct a community survey, hold two town hall meetings and provide updates on the process at Board of Education meetings.

The Board of Education’s final decision on the committee’s closure recommendations is scheduled for the Thursday, June 25, Board of Education meeting.

Any potential school consolidation would take effect for the 2027-2028 school year. Any recommended consolidation scenarios presented by the committee would need final approval from the Board of Education in order to take effect.

“It is kind of an assault on a child in a sense,” Hall Lee said of school closures. “It makes their sense of security in the world uneven and shaky. This is not something I want to do with our district particularly this year.”

Earlier this month the Los Angeles County Office of Education gave PUSD a positive certification on its first interim report, which provides a snapshot of its financial position through Oct. 31. Included with the report was a fiscal stabilization plan meant to address the deficit with $24.5 million in proposed cuts that the Board of Education approved last fall.

During town halls ahead of the cuts being approved, parents asked why the district hadn’t reopened the discussion around consolidation.

“This work embraces the vision of PUSD to ‘transform education to empower students to succeed’ today in and in the future, while centering on equity, transparency, and community voice,” Blanco said in a statement. “The presentation and Board action marks the beginning of a thoughtful and inclusive process, not a predetermined outcome.”

Thursday’s meeting was streamed live on the KLRN Pasadena YouTube channel.