Monday, December 8, 2025

School Board to Install Tina Fredericks as President Amid Fiscal Crisis

Tina Wu Fredericks

Leadership transition comes weeks after contentious budget cut vote

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education will install new leadership Monday evening, with Trustee Tina Fredericks set to become board president as the district navigates an ongoing fiscal emergency and continued recovery from the Eaton Fire.

The organizational meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. at the district’s Hudson Avenue headquarters, will see Fredericks replace outgoing President Jennifer Hall Lee, who led the seven-member board through a divisive vote last month that slashed millions from the 2026-27 budget—eliminating dozens of positions.

Dr. Yarma Velázquez is slated to serve as vice president, with Trustee Patrice Marshall McKenzie as board clerk. Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco will continue as board secretary, according to the agenda.

The transition places new leadership at the helm of a district the Los Angeles County Office of Education has warned faces a “structural crisis,” with projected deficit spending of $149.4 million between 2025 and 2028.

Monday’s special meeting agenda contains no substantive policy items—only organizational business including approval of the 2026 meeting schedule, committee assignments, and authorization of signatures for district contracts and documents. The agenda does not address the First Interim financial report the district must submit to county education officials this month as a condition of its budget approval.

Trustee Scott Harden will represent PUSD on the Los Angeles County Schools Trustee Association, while Hall Lee and Harden will serve as delegates to the Five-Star Coalition, an advocacy group of large school districts. Marshall McKenzie and Trustee Michelle Richardson Bailey are designated as liaisons to the Pasadena Educational Foundation, which has coordinated disaster relief donations following the January fires.

The board will also reaffirm district values that include a commitment to “fiscal responsibility” and “preserving the longer-term financial viability of the district.”

The meeting will be broadcast on KLRN-TV and streamed online.