Altadena Schools, the organization seeking to form an Altadena school district distinct from Pasadena Unified to boost student performance, announced today that they are going to seek 2,500 more signatures on their petition to begin the process of splitting from PUSD.

Altadena Schools has been working for over four years to garner 7,000 signatures to begin the process of holding a special election to create the separate school district.  The organization submitted a 7,200 signature petition last fall, only to see the county registrar reject about 2,000 signatures for various reasons.

Altadena Schools audited the registrar’s results and, according to Chief Proponent Bruce Wasson, “The Registrar’s team took great care and did a terrific job. In the end, a little under 1,900 signatures were edited.”

As there is no deadline for submitting the signatures, Wasson said in an email that petitioning will resume after “support for the [Altadena} Declaration has caught up with the petition.”

The Altadena Declaration is a three-point statement of school priorities that includes teacher effectiveness, creating a longer classroom day and school year, and welcoming “every public school that sends every low-income child to college.”  Altadena Schools is seeking public support for the declaration, which is available here.

The full text of the news release is at: http://www.altadenaschools.net/news.shtml