Students at John Muir High School were greeted Monday by “Rampage,” the Los Angeles Rams mascot, along with school officials and community leaders. [Eddie Rivera / Pasadena Now]

PUSD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco spent the morning moving between two campuses, beginning at Washington Elementary STEM Magnet School shortly after 7:30, where students filed into classrooms already stocked for a new year of lessons. The visit doubled as a preview of facilities upgrades planned for the school in the years ahead.

In Ana Vasquez’s first-grade classroom at Washington, students were already making first-day introductions and sharing fun facts about themselves with their new classmates. 

By 8:45, Blanco had made her way to John Muir Early College Magnet High School, where the district’s annual welcome turned the walkway into something closer to a parade route. ‘Rampage,’ the LA Rams mascot, PUSD Board members, alumni and civic leaders lined the path into campus, cheering students through the gates in a tradition Principal Dr. Lawton Gray said has grown over the years.

Pasadena Unified School District Board Member Michelle Richardson Bailey and Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco. [Paul Takizawa / Pasadena Now]

“The mood is exciting,” Gray said. “The mood is getting ready to get down to business and we’re just so happy to have the community out here celebrating and supporting our students.”

Gray said the community built the welcome to send students off with momentum, and this year carries extra weight. John Muir turns 100.

Washington Elementary classroom. [Paul Takizawa / Pasadena Now]

“This is our hundred year anniversary, so it’s our Centennial this year,” Gray said. “We’re really excited about all these things that come forward this year at John Muir High School.”

Blanco acknowledged the district’s financial challenges over the past few years,  saying that  this year’s theme is meant to shift the district’s focus toward what it has rather than what it lacks.

John Muir High School Principal Dr. Lawton Gray and Pasadena Unified School District Board Member Patrice Marshall McKenzie. [Paul Takizawa / Pasadena Now]

“We don’t want to focus on challenges,” Blanco said. “We want to focus on the assets of the school district and what we can do for the classrooms. And I think it’s going to be a great year.”

She pointed to partnerships that have restored programs cut during past budget reductions, including support from the Pasadena Educational Foundation and a grant from Kaiser that will expand mental health resources on campuses.

Muir High student. [Paul Takizawa / Pasadena Now]

“It’s always hard to go through reductions in budget challenges,” Blanco said. “We reduced positions, but not so much people. I had a teacher call me so excited that she was just called back this week, and we were able to call back the majority of our staff. We reduced positions, not people.”

Students’ supporters. [Paul Takizawa / Pasadena Now] supporters

Outside the classrooms, the day looked the way it always does in Pasadena: backpacks, nervous kindergartners, a school mascot working a gate to grinning kids not quite awake yet. Beneath the ceremony, Blanco and Gray described a district trying to rebuild what recent years have chipped away, one grant, one partnership, one classroom at a time.

Classes continue across PUSD’s 23 campuses this week as the district settles into the 2026-2027 school year.

District says areas open to students are safe after families reported dust and dirt on the first day of the school year

Pasadena Unified School District acknowledged Monday night that some of the final general campus cleaning and restoration work at San Rafael Elementary School had not been finished before students returned for the first day of classes, hours after parents contacted Pasadena Now to report airborne dust and dirt in areas used by children.

In a message to San Rafael families at 7:20 p.m., Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco and Michael Dunning, the district’s director of facilities, maintenance, operations and transportation, wrote that parts of the campus did not look or feel as finished as families reasonably expected on the first day of school.

“The playground structure was dusty, portions of the front walkway were covered with dirt, and restoration work remains visibly incomplete in several areas,” they wrote.

The underlying remediation and safety work, they wrote, has been completed or secured where necessary.

“Most importantly, the areas of campus currently open to students are safe for use,” Blanco and Dunning wrote.

Contaminated soil in those areas has either been removed or is contained within secured areas that remain closed to students, they wrote, and restoration areas where contaminated soil has been removed and restoration activities are pending are fenced off and not accessible to children.

Environmental testing after the Eaton Fire identified elevated levels of contaminants in portions of the soil at San Rafael, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control determined that impacted soil needed to be removed and replaced to ensure the continued safe use of the affected areas, the district said. Rather than leave impacted soil in place until future construction, it said, it moved forward with remediation.

San Rafael is one of 11 Pasadena Unified properties where the district has been removing soil contaminated by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, a project covering approximately 8,000 cubic yards of impacted soil.

All contaminated soil has been removed from the campus or covered with a concrete or gravel cap in accordance with an Interim Mitigation Plan approved by the department, the district said. Testing was conducted after contaminated soil was removed and replaced with clean sand and soil.

Parents of San Rafael Elementary School students telephoned and wrote to Pasadena Now on Monday, raising concerns about conditions on the campus as students returned. The parents, who asked not to be identified, said soil-remediation work remained active, and said construction workers were present Monday in fenced remediation areas containing open excavations.

One parent said dirt associated with the remediation project appeared to extend beyond the fenced work zones and was visible on the playground, blacktop, outdoor classroom areas, lunch area and sidewalks used to enter the school. The parent said school officials previously indicated that work would stop when classes resumed.

The parents also reported seeing a maintenance crew use powered blowers to move dirt on the first day of school, generating what the parent described as a substantial amount of dust, and said the use of blowers appeared to disperse the material rather than remove it from areas accessible to students. The parent said security personnel were stationed around the campus after several parents contacted district officials about the conditions.

The parents expressed concern that the dust could contain lead or arsenic associated with soil contamination being addressed through the remediation project. The parent also criticized the removal of trees and green space from the campus during the summer, describing the current conditions as part of a broader dispute over how the remediation project has been managed.

The parents said the district had maintained that the construction areas were safely separated from students and had attributed some delays to issues involving the city. The visible dirt, ongoing work and dust, the parent said, raised unresolved questions about whether the campus had been adequately cleaned and confirmed safe before reopening. The parent’s observations and assertions regarding contamination have not been independently verified.

In its email, the district addressed several of those points.

Leafblowing was conducted in non-contaminated areas before school began Monday, it said, “per our standard operating cleaning procedures.” The stockpiled material on the playfield is clean, tested imported backfill sand approved by the department, not contaminated soil, and is being used to backfill the areas where impacted soil was removed. The open excavations are part of the restoration process and are located within areas closed to students, the district said, and equipment that had been on the blacktop was removed before school opened Monday.

During earthwork involving contaminated soil, including disturbance, excavation, handling, loading and transportation, the district’s environmental consultant, Verdantas, conducted air monitoring in accordance with South Coast Air Quality Management District Rule 1466, which requires continuous air monitoring and dust-control measures at designated cleanup sites. “According to the monitoring results provided to the District, there were no particulate or wind exceedances during contaminated-soil earthwork,” the district said. Monitoring logs through Aug. 15 have been reviewed.

On Saturday, Aug. 15, the area west of the A Building was washed down, leaves and debris were cleared from the ramp walkway between the blacktop and lower playground, and the lunch-table area outside the cafeteria under the shade structure was washed down, the district said.

Additional cleaning will continue this week, including washing down the entire lower playground and play structure, the front of the school and the adjacent sidewalk area.

Tree removal is only one step in the remediation process, the district said. After vegetation and other surface obstructions were removed, impacted soil was excavated, handled and disposed of appropriately, and the area then must receive remediation clearance before clean soil can be placed. Additional restoration work after backfilling can include irrigation, landscaping and replacement plantings.

Closed for backfill and restoration are the playfield, the street-side planter areas east of the A Building and the planter areas north of the B Building, the district said. Closed areas are fenced to keep children safe while restoration work is underway. The gravel cap has been placed along the southern boundary of the playfield under the Interim Mitigation Plan.

A large portion of the playfield will be reopened once restoration is completed later this school year, barring any unforeseen setbacks, the district said. As it has stated previously, an area on the southern edge of the field will remain closed for the entire school year.

The district said it worked throughout the summer to complete as much remediation as possible before students returned, calling it a complex process involving environmental testing and clearance, soil excavation and hauling, tree and stump work, contractor scheduling, restoration, and periods when work could not proceed as planned. “We would have preferred that every affected outdoor area be fully restored before the first day of school,” it said. Where that was not possible, it said, “students will have access only to areas that are safe for them, while work continues in secured portions of the campus.”

“This is understandably unsettling in the context of a soil-remediation project,” Blanco and Dunning wrote. “We should have done a better job making sure the condition of the campus reflected the extensive work that had already been completed.”

Restoration will continue in the closed areas of the campus, and the district said it will reopen additional outdoor spaces as they are completed and ready for student use. It said it is working to open the remainder of the playfield later this school year.

Students return Monday to campuses where Eaton Fire soil remediation is still under way at some sites

About 13,800 Pasadena Unified School District students return to classrooms Monday for the first day of the 2026-27 school year, as Eaton Fire-related soil remediation remains unfinished at several affected campuses.

The district spent the summer removing fire-related contaminated soil from 11 campuses and district properties across Pasadena and Altadena. In a community email issued the week before classes began, PUSD told families that work would still be underway at some schools when students walked in.

“We have made significant progress, but some campuses will still have outdoor areas under remediation or restoration when school begins,” the district said in the email.

In a message to families dated Aug. 14, Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said summer crews added new fencing and playgrounds, cleaned all schools and carried out “environmental work at several of our sites.” She wrote that the district’s theme for the year is “The Power of Us: Forward Together.”

“Through every challenge, our focus remained where it belongs: on welcoming our students back to campuses that are safe, healthy, and ready for learning,” Blanco wrote.

Blanco said in the same message that the district’s graduation rate has risen to 91 percent, exceeding the state average, and that preliminary results show increases in math and science achievement across the district. She listed three priorities for the year: academic success for every student, visioning for the future, and effective operational systems.

“We’re ready to welcome our students on August 17,” Blanco wrote. “Let’s move forward together.”

The summer also saw legal showdowns with the city about trees damaged or destroyed during the soil remediation process, concerns about school closures, and the launching of recall campaigns against two sitting School Board members.

Pasadena police, meanwhile, urged drivers to be extra cautious as the school children head back to school.

“Please drive carefully in school zones,” Pasadena Police Department Lieutenant Anthony Russo said. “Let’s help keep students safe to ensure as  smooth a transition as possible back to in-person learning.”

The Pasadena Police Department offers the following tips for drivers, parents, and students:

• Walk on sidewalks and use marked crosswalks, preferably at stop signs or signals.
• Watch for cars entering/backing out of driveways or leaving parking spaces.
• If you need to walk into the street to maintain social distancing, remember to look both ways for cars.
• Always look left-right-left before crossing the street. Make sure cars see you. Continue scanning for cars when entering the crosswalk
• Do not listen to loud music or use a phone when crossing the street.

And for drivers:

• Slow down in school zones. Anticipate more foot and car traffic around schools for drop-off and pick-ups.
• Drivers should do their best to avoid blocking the crosswalk when making  a right-hand turn

[File photo]

Free rides, no-cost breakfast and lunch, and after-school programs greet students in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre as classes begin.

As students and families across Pasadena and Altadena head into the 2026-27 academic year on Monday, the Pasadena Unified School District is offering updated guidance to ensure a more successful start. The district serves Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre. 

To ensure punctuality and a smooth start to the day, the district recommends families carefully plan routes to school, whether walking, driving or using Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority public transit.

Free transit now a permanent program

For students who ride public transit, Metro continues to offer free rides through its Student GoPass program — no longer a temporary pilot. In April 2024, the Metro Board of Directors voted to make the Student GoPass program permanent, expanding on what had originally launched as the fareless system initiative referenced in years past.

All eligible K-12 and community college students across participating districts, including Pasadena Unified School District, can ride Metro buses and trains at no cost.

The program has since progressed into its sixth year of operation. According to Metro, the 2025-26 GoPass is valid through September 30, 2026, and the newly issued 2026-27, or Year 6, GoPass is valid  through September 30, 2027, including a three-month bridge period added at no extra cost to districts.

To activate free rides, families must obtain a GoPass TAP card and eligibility code from their school and register it online, via the TAP smartphone app or by phone. Registration can be completed at taptogo.net/gopass, by calling TAP at 866.TAPTOGO Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or by scanning a QR code provided by the school.

Families with questions can contact Pasadena Unified School District Transportation. Sandra Vaca has been listed as a district transportation contact for the GoPass program, reachable by email at vaca.sandra@pusd.us.

Free meals continue district-wide

A nutritious start to the day remains a district priority, with breakfast available at home or at school. For the 2026-27 school year, all Pasadena Unified School District students receive free breakfast and lunch through the federal Community Eligibility Provision, meaning no household income application is required for a student to eat at no cost, according to the district’s Food & Nutrition Services department.

Families are still encouraged to complete optional benefit forms, since qualifying may unlock additional resources, such as SUN Bucks summer grocery benefits worth up to $120 per child per summer, or $40 per month from June through August.

Supper is also available to students participating in after-school enrichment activities. The Food & Nutrition Services department, led by Director Jennifer Andraos, remains the point of contact for meal program questions. The department works alongside the district’s Health Programs office, led by Director Ana Maria “Ria” Apodaca, which oversees student health services and health education.

Registration and enrollment

Registration for the new school year continues to take place at district campuses. Families with registration questions can contact their school’s registrar or the Pasadena Unified School District Office of Enrollment at (626) 396-3639, or visit the district’s main office at 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena.

Expanded learning now branded PasadenaLEARNs

The district’s expanded learning offerings now operate under the formal name PasadenaLEARNs, active at 20 school sites across the district, each staffed with a dedicated site coordinator. The program provides before-school, after-school and summer enrichment, combining academic support, enrichment classes, physical fitness activities and a nutritious supper from dismissal until at least 6 p.m. on regular school days, with some sites running until 6:30 p.m.

Priority enrollment is extended to English Learners, students in foster care, students experiencing homelessness and students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals based on family income. Enrollment generally operates on a first-come, first-served basis. Some sites — including Don Benito, and Sierra Madre Elementary and Middle schools — offer fee-based options alongside free programming, at a cost of $150 per month plus a $35 registration fee.

During the summer, the district’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Program serves students in grades K-8 district-wide, plus grades 9-12 at John Muir High School, running full days from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Applications for PasadenaLEARNs remain available through school offices or online at www.pusd.us/learns, as well as through the third-party portal www.6crickets.com.

Pasadena Unified School District, 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena. For more call (626) 396-3600 or visit www.pusd.us. Office of Enrollment: (626) 396-3639.

Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco welcomed the district community back to school in an Aug. 14 email, telling recipients the 2026-27 year begins with PUSD’s graduation rate risen to 91%, exceeding the state average.

Classes begin Monday, Aug. 17. Teachers and staff are already back at schools preparing classrooms and campuses, Blanco said.

Preliminary results also show promising increases in math and science achievement across the district, Blanco said, crediting the work of students and the educators and staff who support them.

The district’s theme for the year is “The Power of Us: Forward Together,” which Blanco said reflects what the district can achieve by moving forward with shared purpose, belief in its students and a clear vision for the future.

Over the past year, the community has continued recovering from the Eaton Fire while navigating significant change across PUSD, Blanco said. Summer work to prepare campuses included adding new fencing and playgrounds, extensive cleaning at all schools and environmental work at several sites, she said.

“Through every challenge, our focus remained where it belongs: on welcoming our students back to campuses that are safe, healthy, and ready for learning,” Blanco wrote.

The district will build on that progress with three priorities, she said: academic success for every student, visioning for the future, and effective operational systems that support teaching and learning.

“Our goal remains clear: prepare every student for the future,” Blanco wrote. The district wants students to become critical thinkers, effective communicators and people of character who contribute to their communities, she said.

Families preparing for the first day can download the updated PUSD Welcome Kit, which includes the school year calendar, bell schedules, after-school programs and other resources. The English edition is posted at https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1785774236/pusdus/obb2mwqf5ar6c06kqgnl/PUSD_WelcomeKit_v13en8326.pdf. A Spanish edition is also available.

Questions about registering for school should go to a school’s registrar. The PUSD Office of Enrollment can also be reached at (626) 396-3639 or at https://www.pusd.us/departments/enrollment/office-of-enrollment.

Pasadena Board of Education Area 4 Trustee Scott Harden [Courtesy photo]

Trustee calls allegations unproven a day after county ok’s recall petitions for circulation; proponents need 3,543 Trustee Area 4 signatures by Dec. 11

Pasadena Unified School District board member Scott Harden rejected the recall campaign against him Friday, calling the allegations behind it unproven, saying his words had been taken out of context, and describing the effort as a recall framed around personal vendettas and organized by outside special interests.

Harden said in a written statement that he is aware the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk has approved a recall petition against him for circulation. The county cleared petitions against Harden and Board of Education President Tina Fredericks on Aug. 13.

The recall campaigns trace to internal district emails and text messages obtained through public records requests by G. Warren Bleeker, a Pasadena Unified parent who lives in Trustee Area 2 and opposes closing public schools. Bleeker contends the records show Harden, Fredericks, and School Board members Kimberly Kenne and Dr. Yarma Velázquez deliberated privately about a school closure resolution and had a premeditated plan to close schools while publicly saying otherwise. Bleeker said he believes that violates the Brown Act’s ban on serial communications among board members.

“The allegations against me are unproven and simply untrue,” Harden said. “Words have been taken out of context and narratives twisted to serve the political gain of a few powerful influencers outside of District 4 determined to protect their personal priorities at all costs.”

Harden said he firmly believes the voters of District 4 will not stand for “a recall framed around personal vendettas, organized by outside special interests.”

If the recall effort succeeds, Harden said, the district could be forced to spend up to approximately $2 million on special election costs — dollars he said would come directly from teachers, programs and the services students rely on every day.

“A recall pursued at the expense of our students is not how we resolve our differences,” he said.

Fredericks, in an open letter to district residents issued Thursday, cited cost figures printed in the petition: an estimated $981,000 to $1.06 million for a District 6 recall election and an estimated $857,000 to $928,000 for a second election against Harden, bringing the combined total to nearly $2 million.

Bleeker argues the cost runs the other way. These trustees’ actions are driving families out of the district and taking money out of classrooms now, he said, and continued discussions about closing schools have created such instability that many families have already left, which he said could cost the district millions in lost revenue.

No election is triggered unless proponents first clear a signature threshold. Petitioners have 120 days, until Dec. 11, to gather signatures from 20% of eligible voters in each trustee area — 3,543 voters in Harden’s Area 4 and 4,075 in Fredericks’ Area 6.

The county must verify the signatures. If a petition falls short by Dec. 11, it expires and no election is held. If one qualifies, the recall measure would go on the ballot in 2027 for voters to decide.

Harden said he has supported public education in Pasadena for more than 15 years as a parent volunteer, a PTA leader and now as a board member, and that from the day he took office he has consistently and faithfully served District 4 to ensure every student has access to the best educational opportunities possible. He said he has never wavered from that mission.

“I didn’t step forward to serve because I expected this job to be easy,” he said. “I stepped up because I believe with all my heart that doing what is right for all students is the calling of this office — and it’s what my constituents elected me to do.”

Before signing any petition, Harden urged voters to learn the facts at https://hardenforpusd.com, where he said they can also reach him directly with their views and questions.

The district produced hundreds of internal emails and text messages among the four trustees in response to a series of California Public Records Act requests Bleeker filed last spring. Bleeker contends four trustees voted to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a consultant billed as independent, and that Fredericks, Harden and Velázquez had pre-selected the firm. The board later rejected the consultant’s findings, he said.

Bleeker said in written responses to questions from Pasadena Now that Harden violated the Brown Act, lied to his constituents and lost the trust of the community. Harden denies the allegations.

No court has yet determined whether any Brown Act violation occurred. Under Brown Act procedures, Bleeker said, no lawsuit could be filed because the board rescinded the original closure resolution and voluntarily agreed to cease and desist from the acts alleged to be violations.

Neither Harden nor Fredericks is up for re-election this year, so recall is the only way to remove either from office before their terms end, Bleeker said.

Kenne and Velázquez, named in similar allegations, hold seats up in the Nov. 3 general election and are not subject to recall under state law. Velázquez is not s

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

Pasadena School Board President Tina Fredericks and School Board Member Scott Harden. [KLRNS screenshots]

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk approved both petitions Aug. 13, the sources indicated. One targets Board of Education President Tina Fredericks, who represents Trustee Area 6. The other targets Trustee Scott Harden of Trustee Area 4. Proponents have 120 days to circulate them.

Approval clears the petitions to circulate. It does not place either recall on a ballot. Organizers must collect valid signatures from a share of the registered voters within each trustee area, and the county must verify them. If a petition falls short by Dec. 11, it expires and no election is held.

Neither trustee is up for re-election this year, so recall is the only way to remove either from office before their term ends, said G. Warren Bleeker, the Pasadena Unified parent whose public records requests produced the documents at the center of the recall campaigns.

Two other board members named in similar allegations, Kimberly Kenne and Dr. Yarma Velázquez, hold seats that are up in the Nov. 3 general election and are not subject to recall under state law, Bleeker said. Velázquez is not seeking re-election.

Fredericks responded Thursday by issuing an open letter to district residents that put the cost of a recall election in sharp focus.

A District 6 recall election would cost the district an estimated $981,000 to $1.06 million, Fredericks wrote, citing figures printed in the petition. A second recall election (against Harden) would cost an estimated $857,000 to $928,000, she wrote, bringing the combined total to nearly $2 million.

Any added burden on a shrinking district budget could require further teacher and staff layoffs, Fredericks wrote, and she urged constituents to “fight against this recall effort that will cost the district 20 jobs.” Signing the petition means endorsing “baseless and unfounded accusations” while committing taxpayer money to a process that harms schools, she wrote.

Bleeker rejected the layoff claim. Fredericks is suggesting without evidence that a recall election could cost teachers their jobs, and that is untrue, he said in written responses to questions.

Instead, Bleeker argued that the cost runs the other way. The trustees’ actions are driving families out of the district and taking money out of classrooms now, Bleeker said, and the instability created by repeated school closure proposals could cost the district millions in lost revenue.

Dawn Dennison, who served Fredericks with a notice of intent to recall at the board’s May 28 meeting, pressed the same argument during public comment at the board’s Aug. 13 meeting. Dennison said the board president was invoking the loss of 20 district jobs to argue against the recall.

“It won’t cost anything if she resigns,” Dennison said. “It’ll save us all a million dollars.” She said Fredericks should not be able to “take 20 people down” over conduct Dennison described as illegal.

No court has yet been asked to determine whether any Brown Act violation occurred. Under Brown Act procedures, because the board rescinded the original board resolution regarding closure, and voluntarily agreed to cease and desist from engaging the acts that were alleged to be Brown Act violations, no Brown Act lawsuit could be filed.

Fredericks has called the accusations against her baseless and unfounded.

Scott Harden told Pasadena Now “the allegations against me are unproven and simply untrue.”

The recall campaigns grew out of records Bleeker obtained in spring 2026. In response to a series of California Public Records Act requests, the district produced hundreds of internal emails and text messages among Fredericks, Harden, Kenne and Velázquez. Bleeker contends the exchanges show the four deliberated privately about a school closure resolution and had a premeditated plan to close schools while publicly saying otherwise, which he says violates the Brown Act’s ban on serial communications among board members.

Bleeker also contends the four voted to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a consultant billed as independent, and that Fredericks, Harden and Velázquez had pre-selected the firm. The board later rejected the consultant’s findings, he said.

The school campus consolidation effort has since stalled. The Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee, made up of community members, rejected all proposed school closures in May.

Thursday night’s school board meeting focused on a “transformation resolution,” the mission of which is essentially to close schools, resulted in the tabling of almost every item.

Organizers now face the Dec. 11 deadline. If either petition gathers enough valid signatures, the recall measures would appear on the ballot in 2027 to let voters decide whether to recall each official.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

[Photos by Takizawa / Pasadena Now]

Organizers expect as many as 100 volunteers, along with the Los Angeles Rams mascot, to greet students Monday morning as PUSD opens the 2026–27 school year

When students walk through the front entrance of John Muir High School on Monday morning, they will not be greeted quietly. A welcoming crowd of volunteers, city officials, educators, and the Los Angeles Rams mascot Rampage will be waiting for them, lining the walkway with handshakes, cheers, and encouragement.

The gathering is the Dena Community Welcome-Back Day, a tradition that organizers trace to 2013. It started with a small group of men organized by local Dr. William Syms greeting students into an annual first-day-of-school event that draws parents, mentors, nonprofit leaders, police officers, firefighters, and elected officials to the campus at 1905 North Lincoln Avenue.

Monday’s event, timed to the opening of the Pasadena Unified School District’s 2026–27 school year, begins at 8:30 a.m.

“This is not just for men,” said Brandon Lamar, this year’s event host and founder of Project Passion, a community organization. “This is for our entire community to come out and be a part of this.”

Lamar said organizers expect 75 to 100 volunteers. The Rams will send Rampage, cheerleaders, and team staff members, he said in a phone interview. 

Dr. Lawton Gray, the school’s principal and a Muir alumnus, is among the co-organizers, along with Pasadena City Councilmember Tyron Hampton and Dr. Syms, who is now vice president of student services at West Los Angeles College.

Hampton, who represents District 1, was a primary supporter of the event in 2013 while he was serving on the PUSD Board of Education. In those early years, the effort went by another name — “We Have Your Back” — and centered on African American men forming greeting lines at school entrances. 

Lamar said he took on the hosting role roughly four years ago and broadened participation.

“We wanted to open it up to our broad community,” Lamar said. “Whether it be mentors or the police department, the fire station, community mentors or organizations, nonprofits, or anybody that wanted to come support our students.”

Syms, who organized the original “August 15-6teen” welcome at John Muir and three other PUSD campuses, said the initiative has evolved from a chapter project of the 100 Black Men of America into what he described as “a community movement that welcomes all supporters regardless of race, gender or other identity.” 

Syms credited Lamar with sustaining and expanding the effort. “Without Brandon I don’t think this would still happen,” he said.

Lamar said the welcome is designed to send students a visible message at the start of the year. PUSD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco, Board members Michelle Richardson Bailey, Patrice Marshall McKenzie, and Scott Harden are among the district leaders Lamar said typically attend. 

John Muir’s Business and Entrepreneurship Academy also offers a year-round volunteer entry point, he said, with the school regularly seeking community members to assist students with resume writing and business plans.

Syms pointed to the Mentoring Partnership for Youth Development, a nonprofit that operates daily on the John Muir campus, as another avenue for sustained involvement. “Transitioning to support that organization was a natural step,” Syms said. The program provides lunch, summer jobs, and internships to students.

Asked what he hopes students take from the welcome, Syms offered a simple answer: “Students should see their community there for them and available for support. Families should know they are not alone.”

The Dena Community Welcome-Back Day takes place Monday, August 17 beginning at 8:30 a.m. at John Muir High School, 1905 North Lincoln Avenue. The event is free and open to the public. No advance registration is required. Street parking is available near the campus. For more information, contact Brandon Lamar at (626) 314-4256 or brandon@harambee.org.

Trustees approve only forming a committee of the whole — assigned solely to define what “transformation” means — and table the rest of the agenda four days before new school year classes begin

Pasadena Unified’s Board of Education convened Thursday night to set a deadline for voting on which schools to close or consolidate, and adjourned shortly before midnight without setting one.

The special meeting was structured around Resolution 2894, which directs the district to undertake a transformation process, and was run not by the board president but by an outside facilitator, Natalia Guerra, director of community partnerships and impact at Collaborate Pasadena.

But after nearly six hours, the board had approved just a single action item out of five: constituting itself as a committee of the whole, which — as amended from the dais — was given one job: to finish defining what “district transformation” means.

Trustees then voted to table the four remaining action items, including the closure-vote deadline, approval of the data sets needed to make a closure decision, and the first agenda of the committee, which would have taken up removing some schools from the potential closure list.

No date was set for the committee’s first meeting, though the structure trustees adopted allows meetings to begin immediately upon approval. No chair was named. The board’s own working definition of transformation, assembled over more than two hours of reflection rounds, sticky notes and clustering exercises, was left unadopted.

Classes for the new school year begin Monday.

The night’s turn

Guerra opened by disclosing how the evening had been built.

“This discussion we will embark upon today was designed by an agenda planning team, which includes the board president, the superintendent, members of her leadership team, and myself,” she said, adding that her role had turned out to be “less to design this process and more to synthesize ideas and steward our collective vision.”

She also told the room, “Nothing about this [transformation] process has been determined yet.”

The format was unlike a standard board meeting. Trustees sat away from the dais in a restorative-justice discussion circle, passing a glass apple as a talking piece while Guerra kept order.

They read nine community agreements aloud, one at a time — among them “stick within timeframes,” “be clear, be calm, be kind” and “discuss now, decide after” — then added four more from the floor, including “be present” and, at Harden’s suggestion, “presume positive intent.”

Guerra led a round of introductions and a guided breathing exercise paired with a meditation on restorative-justice principles. Ideas the board set aside were assigned to what she called a “community garden.”

Early on, a digital whiteboard she had drafted before the meeting failed to save, and she recreated it live.

By 9:25 p.m., with the agenda behind schedule, the board voted to extend the meeting to midnight. Asked how far behind, Guerra said, “Pretty behind. I would say like an hour.”

The decisive turn came after a break that ran from roughly 10:30 to 10:47 p.m. Guerra returned and announced that the agenda had been cut down.

“We’re not going to be getting to these questions, the date on which to vote for consolidation, the data selection,” she said.

The remaining time, she said, would go to questions from the superintendent’s leadership team and then to committee structure.

“So we’re not going to be talking about deadlines and dates for consolidation. We’re going to be focusing on the structure.”

Trustee Kimberly Kenne asked whether scheduling of community engagement sessions — also called for in Resolution 2894 — would be covered. It would not, Guerra said, adding that during the break “we collectively agreed” it could be pushed to another meeting or added to the agenda of the first committee meeting, “that’s yet to be determined.”

‘A disingenuous strategy’

Board Vice President Dr. Yarma Velázquez, one of four trustees whom public commenters identified as the majority behind Resolution 2894, objected on the record.

“So if we’re not going to do the things that we’re not going to do, when are we going to do them?” she asked. “And then how did we decide not to do them? How is the process of deciding that?”

Guerra answered: “It’s a time consideration. We’re here until midnight.”

“So I want to note that it is a strategy to extend conversations so that we cannot make it through the full agenda,” Velázquez said. “And it feels like a disingenuous strategy not built on trust or transparency.”

Guerra pointed the room back to one of the agreements the board had adopted at the outset — presume positive intent — and then took partial responsibility.

“I think the definition activity took a lot more time than originally allocated, but I think that was important. So that was also a move on my part.”

Velázquez had raised the same concern less than half an hour earlier, before the break, invoking the agreement to stick within time frames.

“I don’t want to use or exploit time discussions as a political stall so that we don’t complete this agenda,” she said then, asking Guerra to impose stricter limits.

Later, during the committee-structure debate, Velázquez voiced a broader frustration: “I just don’t want to be in a situation where every single intervention is, we shouldn’t have this conversation.”

Less than an hour after the “disingenuous” exchange, it was Velázquez who moved the item that did pass.

The vote

With the meeting nearing its midnight cutoff and Guerra noting that a good deal remained unresolved — the committee had no agenda, and the working definition was, in her words, “not even put together yet” — Velázquez moved to approve Action Item D4, committee structure, as a committee of the whole with all trustees as members. Trustee Scott Harden seconded.

A board committee of the whole, under the structure trustees adopted, comprises all seven trustees and the student board member, with the superintendent or a designee in attendance. Meetings would be held in the boardroom, livestreamed and recorded, likely on Thursdays not already occupied by regular board meetings, and would be subject to the Brown Act. No final decision on closures could be made in committee; any official action would require the board to reconvene as the governing board and act by motion and vote. Meetings can start immediately after the board approves the committee.

Board Clerk Patrice Marshall McKenzie then supplied the amendment that reshaped the motion. Saying she did not want the full transformation process to live permanently in a committee of the whole, she asked to narrow it.

“May I amend the motion to clarify that the committee of the whole as it’s being constituted now is to finish the work of defining and clarifying transformation?” she asked. Restating it moments later for the record: “Amending the motion to clarify that this committee of the whole is being constituted in order for the board to continue defining the work of transformation.”

Harden asked whether the change was a friendly amendment.

Trustee Michelle Richardson Bailey answered, “It’s not a friendly.”

Fredericks then asked Velázquez whether she wished to retract her motion. Velázquez accepted the amendment as friendly anyway, and Harden concurred.

Asked by Kenne how the committee’s chair would be selected — Marshall McKenzie noted that a committee of the whole has a chair separate from the board president — Harden said the vote should wait.

“I would propose that at our regular meeting, we vote for a chair,” he said. “The committee is formed, so it can survive without a chair until the general meeting.” No vote was taken on a chair.

The motion passed on a show of hands, with the presiding officer putting the count at six and recording no votes against and no abstentions. Student board member Lula Matsura, whose vote is preferential, said yes.

Harden then moved to table action items D1, D2, D3 and D5.

Velázquez seconded.

Bailey asked for clarification on item 5 — the first committee agenda, including removal of schools from the potential closure list — and was told it was being held “until we can define it.” That motion also passed, and Board President Tina Fredericks adjourned the meeting.

What the board did build

Before the agenda was truncated, trustees spent the bulk of the evening constructing a working definition of district transformation from scratch — first reflecting individually on lessons from the failed spring consolidation process, then generating ideas on color-coded sticky notes, pairing off to narrow them, and clustering and naming the results.

The framework that emerged identified three components: community engagement to identify values and desired outcomes; program assessment in order to sustain programs and increase enrollment; and leadership development, encompassing board professional development, culture and healing. It identified four outcomes: increased operational efficiencies, high-quality facilities, increased revenue, and working toward building trust.

Velázquez synthesized the whole into a single statement during a break, which Guerra read aloud:

“A comprehensive school transformation process will integrate community engagement, program assessment, board leadership development and strategic investment to strengthen programs, increase enrollment, and position schools for long-term success. The transformation process will improve operational efficiencies, align resources with demonstrated needs, increase revenue, evaluate student belonging and happiness, maximize facility utilization, direct investments towards programs with greatest potential for enrollment, growth and sustainability.”

Guerra stressed repeatedly that it remained a working draft.

“This is not the one we’re going to adopt,” she said. It is now the sole assignment of the committee the board created.

The board also completed the data work that preceded the item Guerra cut. Ten categories were read aloud one by one — demographics and enrollment projections; balance of pupil demographics and disproportionality; facilities capacity and conditions; operating costs; projected savings from a school closure; academic special programs impact; impact on feeder-school attendance patterns; transportation; environmental factors; and asset management — alongside a category Kenne described as alternative scenarios with no school closures, or the impact of doing nothing.

Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco identified the language as drawn from AB 1912, and the district’s chief business officer read the statute’s definition into the record: traffic patterns and pickup safety, freeway and major-road proximity, surrounding hazards including industrial pollution and pipelines, and community impacts including the potential for neighborhood blight from a vacant campus.

Trustees then filled out and submitted individual worksheets ranking each category high, medium or low priority.

That exercise was finished. The action item that would have ratified it was tabled.

Where trustees landed

The committee-of-the-whole outcome emerged from a round in which trustees were asked which structure — a two- or three-member board subcommittee, a committee of the whole, or a community committee — should steward the process.

Marshall McKenzie made the case first.

“Given that we haven’t come to clarity and agreement around what and how we’re defining transformation, I think that this body needs to have more discussion,” she said. “We have to establish our baseline first and we have not yet done that.”

Fredericks, who said she had flip-flopped between a subcommittee and a committee of the whole, came down on the latter, citing the night itself.

“It just feels like we need, like Trustee McKenzie’s saying, we need a lot of work to just be at a baseline together. And we should be learning our lessons from the past, not rushing,” she said. “I tend to be like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’ And I have to slow down and we have to slow down.”

Trustee Jennifer Hall Lee voted for the structure while rejecting its purpose. “This is all really nice intent, but we’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic here because this board needs so much work that we have to start at ground zero,” she said, calling for “a board committee of the whole on building trust on the board that has nothing to do with transformation. Zero to do with that.”

The board, she said, is not ready for a conversation about transformation or potential consolidation and is “a couple of years away from that on this board as we are now.”

Bailey was blunter still. “We can’t give to the community what we don’t have,” she said. “We need our own transformation. We need to transform this board. We need to adjust and repair our own culture before we can even begin to think about being effective, engaging the community.”

Fredericks laid out the case for acting at all. The district is losing 400 to 500 students a year, she said, “which is an entire school.”

A third of PUSD’s elementary schools are “half full,” and 80% of the budget goes to people. “The fewer schools we have, the more fully staffed schools we have.”

[photo credit: PUSD]

The Pasadena Unified School District year begins Aug. 17, the second under California’s completed universal prekindergarten expansion

Pasadena Unified School District students return to class Monday, opening a school year in which transitional kindergarten is available to every four-year-old in California for the second year running.

“I want to welcome back all students at all levels to a new year,” Interim City Manager Matthew E. Hawkesworth said, wishing them new adventures and chances to make friends. He encouraged students to try their best and stay curious, telling them their impact starts on day one.

The first day of the 2026-2027 year is Monday, Aug. 17, and the first semester begins the same day, according to the district. Teachers were on duty for staff development Aug. 12 and 13, and Aug. 14 was a teacher-driven, pupil-free day. The district says it is “excited to welcome students and families” and has published a welcome kit carrying the year calendar, bell schedules, after-school programs and other resources.

Families can map the year now. Thanksgiving break runs Nov. 23 to 27. Winter break runs Dec. 21 through Jan. 1, 2027, spring break falls March 29 to April 2, 2027, and the last day of school is June 3, 2027.

The youngest arrivals enter a program that only recently became universal. Hawkesworth, whose wife has taught for more than 30 years, said she was preparing to welcome her transitional kindergarten class and looking forward to new relationships with co-workers and families.

Transitional kindergarten has existed in California since 2012 but was long limited to children turning five in the fall. That changed with Assembly Bill 130, passed in 2021, which created the state’s Universal Prekindergarten program and required every public school district operating a kindergarten to offer free prekindergarten to all four-year-olds. Eligibility widened in stages beginning in 2022-23, moving the birthday cutoff from Dec. 2 to Feb. 2, then April 2, then June 2, before opening to every four-year-old in 2025-26.

The California Department of Education marked that final stage in a March 2025 letter to superintendents, saying every four-year-old would have access “regardless of background, race, zip code, immigration status, or income level.” Children qualify if they turn four by Sept. 1. The program is free, runs inside the K-12 system, and uses curriculum and facilities built for four-year-olds. It is not mandatory, and families may choose a state preschool program, Head Start or a private preschool instead.

Take-up has climbed steeply. Participation rose from 17% of eligible children to a peak of 83%, and the state has put billions of dollars in one-time and ongoing funding behind the expansion.

Hawkesworth also pointed to a summer of full parks, saying his favorite part of the break was watching families swim and play across the city’s programs, and noted the lighter traffic that comes with school out.

Back-to-school information, including the welcome kit and year calendar, is posted at https://www.pusd.us/departments/communications/back-to-school.