Thursday, May 28, 2026

The Emails That Lit the Fuse: How Released Records Ignited Pasadena’s School-Closure Firestorm

The public-records controversy and recall efforts are driven by Brown Act allegations ahead of Thursday’s PUSD board meeting

As the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education convenes Thursday for the next public phase of its school-consolidation review, the meeting arrives in the shadow of an email controversy that has reshaped the debate over closing Pasadena-area campuses — and triggered an active campaign to recall two sitting trustees.

As the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education convenes Thursday for the next public phase of its school-consolidation review,

Thursday’s Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education meeting arrives in the shadow of an email controversy that has reshaped the debate over closing Pasadena-area campuses — and triggered threats to recall two sitting trustees.

The records were originally obtained through Public Records Act requests by a Pasadena Unified parent who supplied them to local media.

The email records appear to show that Board President Tina Fredericks developed a consolidation proposal months before the district formally hired an outside consultant.

Thursday, May 28, 2026

PUSD Board Meeting Thrusts School Closures, Board Elections, Brown Act Accusations and Recall Plans into Single Public Forum

The public comments portion of meeting likely to be dramatic after weeks of controversy over Board member emails

The Pasadena Board of Education is scheduled Thursday to take up the next stage of its school-consolidation process at a meeting that will almost certainly include passionate pleas to keep their schools open from parents and students, Brown Act violation accusations, and emerging efforts to recall sitting several board members.

The meeting is not scheduled to hear a final vote on school closures. But the agenda places several of the most contentious issues now surrounding the district on the same night: a board-member statement regarding email records disclosures, a presentation by Total School Solutions on a draft Equity Impact Analysis about campus closures, a public hearing on that analysis, and a board discussion of next steps in the consolidation process.

The result is a meeting that may test whether PUSD can continue moving through the scheduled formal school-closure review while public confidence in the process remains under strain.

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Altadena Community to Unveil Largest Mural Since Eaton Fire

Leaders of the Altadena community will gather on Sunday afternoon,  May 31, 2026, to celebrate the unveiling of its largest mural to date—a sweeping tribute  to the history of Mt. Lowe and the storied railroads that once carried visitors into the San  Gabriel Mountains.

Created by artist Austin Scott and commissioned by Waleed and Erin Delawari, From  Rails to Trails: Echo Mountain is the result of an extraordinary collaborative effort  involving more than 80 community volunteers. More than a historical depiction, the  piece serves as a symbol of unity and resilience in the wake of the Eaton Fire, inviting  the fire-affected community to heal through shared creativity and storytelling.

The mural is painted on the back of the Delawari family’s newly built wall, where a wood  fence used to stand, facing the Altadena Crest Trail just west of the Cobb Estate.  Waleed and Erin lost their family home and one of their beloved goats in the Eaton Fire,  in which they raised their four children.

Thursday, May 28, 2026

LA County Public Health Unveils Heat-Related Illness Dashboard

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced Wednesday the launch of a new dashboard tracking heat-related illnesses and deaths across the county as officials prepare for the region’s hottest months of the year.

The Heat-Related Illness and Mortality Dashboard provides data on emergency department visits and deaths linked to heat exposure, allowing public health officials and communities to monitor the effects of extreme heat by region and demographic group, according to the department.

“Extreme heat is becoming more frequent and severe, making heat- related illness an increasing concern especially for older adults, young children, outdoor workers, and people with underlying health conditions,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. “This dashboard gives us timely, local insight into who is most affected and where, helping Public Health and our partners take targeted action.”

The dashboard includes daily emergency department visit rates during heat season from May through October, along with daily high temperatures recorded in downtown Los Angeles.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Altadena Businesses Get Free Marketing Help as Fire Recovery Drags On

County program offers website builds, social media support, and storefront facelifts to shops still struggling nearly a year and a half after the Eaton Fire

The storefronts that survived the Eaton Fire are still standing. The customers, in many cases, are not back yet.

A new county program announced Tuesday aims to help change that, offering Altadena small businesses free, individualized marketing support from building websites and running social media campaigns to installing new signage and painting murals on their walls. Enrollment in the Shop Local Marketing Lab+ is open through June 8, according to a press release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office.

The program is led by the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity and supported by partnerships with Google and SoCal Grantmakers, the regional philanthropic association. It is the latest component of the county’s broader “Shop Local. Dine Local. Recover Local.” campaign, which Barger launched in July 2025 to stabilize brick-and-mortar businesses in the unincorporated community that had lost foot traffic and revenue after the January 2025 fire.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Guest Essay | Jennifer Hall Lee: PasadenaLEARNS Community Showcase Was Spectacular

The annual PasadenaLEARNS Expanded Learning Opportunities Program Community (ELOP) annual Community Showcase was held on May 17 at the District headquarters and it was spectacular.

For those who aren’t familiar with this unique accoutrement of the Pasadena Unified School District, the PasadenaLearns ELOP program is PUSD’s after and before school extended learning program which includes a yearly summer program for students.

Superintendent Dr. Blanco said “Students have opportunities to explore the arts, participate in athletics, and receive academic support. This showcase celebrates the joy, creativity, and sense of belonging that our students experience after the bell rings.”

All nineteen PUSD schools offering LEARNS/ELOP participated in the showcase along with hundreds of parents, community members and LEARNS staff who were in attendance.

Harmony Cano, the Coordinator of Expanded Learning said that the showcase “highlights our students’ exploration of the arts, their commitment to teamwork, and the strength of the communities that support them.”

The MC for the various activities was fifth grader Alexa Campos from Madison Elementary.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Ashes to Anthems Returns as a Full-Day Juneteenth Gathering for Altadena Fire Survivors

The Legacy Land Project’s second benefit festival, set for June 20, pairs a free daytime resource fair with a ticketed evening concert, with proceeds directed to Eaton Fire recovery

When the Legacy Land Project staged the first Ashes to Anthems last spring, it was a single benefit concert. This June, the Altadena nonprofit is asking fire survivors to spend the whole of Juneteenth together — a free afternoon of vendors, food and recovery services that gives way to a ticketed evening concert, all of it built around keeping displaced families rooted in their own neighborhoods.

Ashes to Anthems returns Saturday, June 20, on Juneteenth weekend, but in its second year it is no longer the lone concert that drew crowds to a Pasadena park in 2025. The Legacy Land Project, a Black-led nonprofit formed in response to the Eaton Fire, has reframed the event as a full-day Juneteenth festival: an afternoon vendor village and community marketplace that builds toward a 7 p.m. headliner concert.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Consultant Hands School Board a Campus Closures Roadmap, Even After Advisory Panel Says No

The Total School Solutions analysis preserves every closure scenario the advisory committee rejected, leaving trustees with a full menu of options ahead of a June 25 decision

An outside consulting firm engaged by Pasadena Unified School District has delivered to the Board of Education a draft Equity Impact Analysis that models school closure and consolidation scenarios across the district — including the potential shuttering of high school and elementary campusess and multiple middle-grade programs — handing trustees a scenario-by-scenario roadmap even though the Superintendent’s own advisory committee voted earlier this month to recommend no closures at all.

The draft analysis, prepared by Total School Solutions and scheduled for presentation to the Board on Thursday, May 28, applies the nine metrics required under Assembly Bill 1912 to each scenario. The result is a state-mandated equity review that remains on the table regardless of what the Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee recommended, and one the Board may adopt, modify or decline to consider.

Under AB 1912,

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Young Musicians March Toward the Fourth of July in PUSD’s $25 Summer Band Camp

Rising fifth- through eighth-graders can train at Pasadena High School and earn a spot in the Sierra Madre parade

For $25 a week, a middle schooler with a trumpet case and two free weeks in June can land a spot marching in the Sierra Madre Fourth of July Parade.

That is the offer from the Pasadena Unified School District’s TEAM PUSD Summer Band Camp, which opens June 22 at Pasadena High School. The five-week program, run by the district’s PasadenaLEARNs Expanded Learning Programs, pairs rising fifth- through eighth-grade students with PUSD music teachers and high school student mentors to learn marching fundamentals, percussion, color guard, and instrumental performance. Students who complete both Week 1 and Week 2, according to the program announcement, earn the chance to perform in Sierra Madre’s annual Independence Day parade.

The camp runs in weekly sessions through July 24. Chad Prado, a PUSD music educator based at Sierra Madre Middle School, leads the first three weeks.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Guest Opinion | Meredith Murphy, Ph.D.: What’s Being Ignored in the Proposal to Close and “Consolidate” Blair Middle/High School

Most students and families would be saddened by their school being closed, but the prospect is especially heartbreaking when you have very intentionally chosen that school. My daughter, Fiona, is a 6th grader at Blair Middle School. Blair isn’t the school we’re zoned for. In fact, we don’t live in Pasadena; we live in Highland Park and are zoned for LAUSD. We chose Blair because, after touring various options, we were certain it was the best fit for Fiona. I know there are many other families like ours – those who aren’t zoned for Blair but chose it, or even fought through the maddening interdistrict permitting process, because they found the school they believed would best serve their children (as an aside, interdistrict students provide a financial benefit to PUSD).

The current proposal to shutter Blair, separate the middle and high schools, and merge them each with a different school, is hugely problematic. The proposal touts vague benefits of increased academic and elective opportunities. But what proponents of closures fail to acknowledge is that Blair is more than just some buildings.