Wednesday, February 25, 2026

PUSD Bond Watchdog Finds Proper Spending but Flags Staffing Risks

District’s oversight committee tells board the bond program lacked adequate personnel after an outside manager was let go

An independent audit found the Pasadena Unified School District properly spent money from its two voter-approved school construction bonds during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, but the citizens’ committee that monitors that spending warned the district exposed itself to risk by trying to manage the program without enough staff.

The Citizens’ Oversight Committee’s annual report, which covers Measures TT and O — bonds worth a combined $866.3 million approved by voters in 2008 and 2020 — goes before the Board of Education at its regular meeting Thursday at the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room, 351 S. Hudson Ave.

Auditing firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP concluded that “in all significant respects, the District has properly expended the funds held in the Measure TT and Measure O Bond Building Funds on authorized bond projects,” according to the report. The auditors presented their findings to the board on March 27, 2025, and to the oversight committee on June 25, 2025.

But the committee’s report raised pointed concerns about the district’s ability to manage the bond program after ending its contract with Safework, an outside program management consultant. Committee members told district staff their plan to hire replacements was unrealistic given the available labor market, according to the report. The district did not complete its hiring plan during the fiscal year, the report states, citing difficulty filling Program Manager and Accounts Payable technician positions.

The auditors flagged a separate issue: errors totaling $1,396,299 in expenditures that were recorded in the wrong fiscal year. The accounting has been corrected, the report states, and the expenditures were not improper. CliftonLarsonAllen also issued a written recommendation to improve internal controls.

The committee noted that the auditors’ finding on internal controls was consistent with its own concerns about staffing. “The COC is not aware of any specific errors in the program management, despite the risks the District exposed itself to,” the report states.

Monthly financial reports to the committee regularly contained errors in the reporting of expenditures or commitments, though not in the expenditures themselves, according to the report. Those errors arose from manual work required to reconcile data between two software systems — Kahua, which stored program management data transferred from Safework, and the district’s internal accounting system. The committee urged PUSD to upgrade its reporting software.

During the fiscal year, $1.35 million was spent under Measure TT and $24.88 million under Measure O, according to the performance audit. The district issued $80 million in Measure O bonds during the period, leaving a year-end fund balance of $84.6 million.

Measure TT, a $350 million bond passed in 2008, has funded repairs and upgrades to aging school campuses across Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre. Measure O, a $516.3 million bond approved in 2020, is funding a new round of school modernization projects. Voters in November 2024 also approved Measure R, a $900 million bond, and Measure EE, a parcel tax.

The oversight committee held 10 meetings during the fiscal year. Teo Sierra served as chair for the majority of the period, taking over from John Robinson in February 2024. The committee is required by California Education Code and operates independently of the board and district administration.

The Board of Education meets Thursday, February 26, at 4:30 p.m. at the PUSD Education Center, 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena. Meetings are broadcast on KLRN-TV, Charter Cable Channel 95, AT&T U-Verse Channel 99, and streamed online.