Thursday, April 23, 2015

School Board Meets Tonight, Will Consider Laying Off 30 Staff

Declining student enrollment, departmental restructuring and the loss of categorical and other funding is prompting the Pasadena Unified School District to consider issuing lay off notices to a number of District employees at the School Board’s Thursday meeting this week, a District spokesperson said.

The item before the Board at the Thursday meeting would advise 30 employees that they could be laid off.

PasadenaLEARNS, which offers after school and summer school programs, would be hardest hit, with 20 positions slated for possible elimination.

Last year PasadenaLEARNs served students daily at Eliot, Altadena, Marshall Fundamental, Pasadena High School and 19 other district school sites, according to the district’s websites.

The layoff action comes as one of a number agenda items to be heard tonight. Also on the agenda for approval is a new evaluation system to analyze the competence of all district administrators.

Yolanda Mendoza, Pasadena Unified’s Chief Human Resources Officer, said on the agenda that this new Administrative Evaluation System ” required six months and “a great deal of time and effort” to create. She is recommending that the Board authorize the system for implementation in the 2015-16 school year.

The system would initiate a rigorous review of every administrator to be certain each is complying with certain guideline and that each is “on the same page” with the district’s goals.

A complete description is available here.

The School Board will meet on Thursday, April 23, in the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room at 351 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena. The public meeting starts will ceremonial matters at 6:00 p.m.