Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Guest Opinion | Jonathan Gardner President, United Teachers of Pasadena: Not Just a Budget Crisis – PUSD Has a Values Crisis

The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Board of Education finds itself in the position of needing to trim roughly $30 million from its annual budget. Unfortunately, its approach to these cuts is utterly backwards and self-defeating.

School districts exist to educate students. Thus, even in times of financial distress, the classroom learning experience should be valued and protected above all else. Instead, the PUSD Board of Education appears determined to carry on its tradition of underfunding school sites while insulating the Central Office from cuts—according to proposals, the absolute maximum that would be cut from Central Offices would be $5 million while the absolute minimum that would be cut from schools would be $18 million. What would these upside-down priorities look like in practice? Here are but a few examples:

1. HURTING OUR MOST VULNERABLE STUDENTS. Students at Rose City High School would lose their CTE Business Principles teacher. For these students, this class is not only a graduation requirement but also a crucial link to career readiness. Students at Superintendent Zone Schools (designated because of their exceptionally high needs) would lose essential resources such as MTSS coaches and librarians.

2. DAMAGING OUR MAGNET PROGRAMS BEYOND REPAIR. Students at STEAM Magnet schools will lose their full-time Science teachers, and students at ART magnets will lose their full-time Art teacher.

3. ELIMINATING SECONDARY SPORTS OR ATHLETICS ENTIRELY. At the high schools, either every school would dissolve half of its sports programming, or two schools would eliminate athletics.

4. DIRTY AND UNSAFE SCHOOLS. Custodial staff would be reduced by 14 people, and security guards by seven. One gardening team would have to care for all 31 campuses.

All of this, sadly, would be in keeping with PUSD’s standard approach. This is the fourth year in a row that PUSD has spent less than the legally-required amount (55%) of its budget at the classroom level. That’s an incredible and shameful fact. And with these proposed cuts, the district is doubling down on its wilful neglect of students, teachers and schools, while driving away the very families it needs to attract to remain a sustainable enterprise.

But there is another way forward. UTP proposes an approach that a) prioritizes the student experience above everything else and shields it from all but the most necessary cost-saving measures, and b) finds and plugs budget holes that will ensure sustainability for years to come. Here are some examples of what that could look like in practice:

1. REDUCING ADMINISTRATIVE BLOAT. In 2013, PUSD had 17,000 students and 37 Central Office administrators (459 students for every central administrator). Now, in 2025, the student population has dropped to 13,000, and yet the number of Central Office administrators has ballooned to 51. PUSD should return to the previous student-to-administrator ratio, reducing central administrative staff to 28 and saving the district $6 to $7 million (reducing even further, as other nearby districts have done, is certainly viable and would save up to $10 million).

2. ELIMINATING WASTEFUL CONTRACT SPENDING. In the 2013-2014 school year, contracted services accounted for 15% of the budget, or roughly $28 million. Over the next ten years, even as enrollment steadily declined, the percentage of the budget spent on contracted services crept up. By 2023-24, the district was spending 22% of its budget, or $74 million, on contracted services, and this year the district is projected to spend an astonishing $100 million in this area. Too many of these dollars are spent in ways that do not impact student learning, and this money urgently needs to be redirected.

3. DOING AWAY WITH OVER-BUDGETING. PUSD has a habit of over-budgeting, and last year was no exception. Between the adoption of the budget and the final Unaudited Actuals, every year, PUSD “finds” between $8 and $12 million. By carefully aligning PUSD’s budget to its actual spending, PUSD can eliminate at least $8 million in yearly spending and avoid many of the cuts that are being suggested at the classroom level.

PUSD’s proposals would have us believe that the future of our district is bleak–but it doesn’t have to be! By directing cuts away from classrooms and school sites, and by making reductions in spending elsewhere in the budget (namely at Central Offices and contracts), PUSD can truly live up to its professed values, the first of which is: “Our students come first.” As well they should.

Jonathan Gardner is President of United Teachers of Pasadena.