Friday, April 24, 2026

Pasadena Unified Board Approves Full Rebuild of San Rafael Elementary Over Fiscal Concerns

Trustees reject motion to delay project until school consolidation decision

[UPDATED] The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education voted Thursday night to approve the full demolition and rebuild of San Rafael Elementary School, rejecting a motion to delay the project until after the district’s pending school consolidation decision.

The approval comes after trustees acknowledged that the project’s total cost has risen to roughly three times its original allocation in the five?year bond plan, and that the additional amount above existing Measure O funding and expected state match will have to be covered from Measure R before the new facilities master plan is complete.

Trustee Kimberly Kenne moved to table Board Report 1941-F, which authorized the rebuild, arguing the board should wait until the school consolidation process concludes. Trustee Scott Harden seconded the motion.

“I think this would bring clarity to how San Rafael will be used in that plan, as well as may identify other facility needs that will need to be funded,” Kenne said. She noted that one current consolidation scenario would close the neighborhood school zoned for the San Rafael area.

The motion to table failed. Trustee Yarma Velázquez and Board President Tina Fredericks spoke against the delay. Student Trustee Rivera abstained.

A subsequent motion to approve the rebuild then passed. Rivera again abstained.

Cost escalation and funding sources

The rebuild will draw primarily from two voter-approved bond measures — Measure O and Measure R. The original five-year bond plan had assumed $125 million in state matching funds to offset Measure O costs, but trustees were divided on when — or whether — that money would arrive.

Michael Dunning, Pasadena Unified’s Director of Facilities, Maintenance, Operations & Transportation, in presenting the bond program to the board told trustees that construction cost inflation is running at approximately 6% per year and is expected to rise to 8% in 2027. Trustee Patrice Marshall McKenzie said she is seeing cost escalations closer to 20% in her professional work, and cautioned her colleagues about “the time clock ticking” on the value of district dollars.

Kenne said a one-year delay would push the earliest date that San Rafael students could move off campus from the summer of 2027 to the summer of 2028. Dunning confirmed that timeline and added that a delay would cascade into other bond projects already scheduled in the district’s five-year plan. He told trustees that even at annual inflation of 6% to 8%, the escalations compound because the district is “talking hundreds of millions” in bond spending.

“If we table this, we will guarantee that this will be more expensive than we have estimated, and it will guarantee that we will delay other projects,” Fredericks said before the tabling vote.

Kenne said she had reviewed Proposition 2, the most recent state school bond, and consulted School Services of California. She said voters approved $10 billion in Proposition 2 statewide, of which approximately $4.4 billion was designated for modernization. The new-construction portion, she said, does not apply to projects that tear down and rebuild on the same site — only to schools built where none previously existed. She said the State Allocation Board has received approximately $1.7 billion in applications beyond the bond’s authority, meaning the district’s San Rafael application will not be funded under Proposition 2 and will have to wait for a future state bond.

Dunning had earlier told the board the state match funds, which he estimated at $118 million to $125 million, would likely arrive in approximately six years and could be applied to the back of the district’s spending plan once confirmed.

Kenne said that the project’s share of Measure R — combined with previously committed Measure R spending on staff housing and solar infrastructure — would bring Measure R commitments to roughly $375 million of its $900 million total before the district has completed its new facilities master plan.

Trustee Jennifer Hall Lee, who pressed for clarification on the matching-funds situation, said she was concerned about whether the money would ultimately be there. Dunning told her that between Measure O and Measure R, the district has the funds to cover everything currently in the approved five-year plan.

Displacement and capacity

San Rafael students will be moved to Allendale Elementary School during construction, Dunning said. Longfellow Elementary students are scheduled to occupy Allendale beginning in summer 2026 for approximately one year before San Rafael takes its turn.

The rebuilt campus is currently designed for a capacity of just under 500 students, with plans to add transitional kindergarten classrooms. Several trustees, including Kenne and Harden, raised questions about whether the capacity should be increased to accommodate possible enrollment shifts from consolidation.

Dunning said the site can accommodate a larger footprint — potentially a second two-story building at the south end of the campus — if the board later directs such a change. Dr. Wong, addressing board procedure, said any such change would return first to the Facilities Committee and then to the full board as a separate action item.

Public comment and advocacy

The rebuild decision followed public comment from San Rafael parents, teachers and a Pasadena city representative.

Justin Chapman, field representative for Pasadena Councilmember Steve Madison, whose District 6 includes San Rafael Elementary, told the board Madison supports the rebuild.

Chapman said Madison was out of town and had asked him to deliver a statement on his behalf. Reading from that statement, Chapman said San Rafael is the only remaining public school in West Pasadena, and the councilmember supports the rebuild “to ensure the future of the school.”

Carla Landaverde, a fourth-grade teacher and parent at San Rafael, asked the board to vote to demolish and rebuild. She said the school piloted the district’s dual language program in 2009 and has “asked for very little to succeed.”

Sahar Uriarte, an Eaton Fire survivor and San Rafael parent, said the school community has been a source of stability after her family lost its Altadena home and urged the board to invest in the facility. Lindsay Amstutz, speaking on behalf of 104 current San Rafael parents, asked the board to approve Board Report 1941-F.

Velázquez described San Rafael as a school with the district’s largest wait list, the highest application volume and a Parent Teacher Association engagement level that she said exceeds enrollment. She characterized prior delays to the project as part of a pattern of neglect dating to 1998.

“It is very hard to understand that,” Velázquez said of continued delays. She said the only distinction between San Rafael and two other high-demand schools ranked second and third in applications is the physical structure of the San Rafael campus.

Next steps

Dunning told the board the district will return with additional clarity on funding allocations at its May 2026 meeting. The district’s facilities master plan architect is expected to deliver findings in January 2027.

The consolidation advisory process, which prompted Kenne’s motion to table, is scheduled to produce a recommendation on May 28, 2026, with a potential board vote on school closures as early as June 25, 2026.

Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco told trustees San Rafael closure was not among the scenarios the district’s consultant presented or recommended to the advisory committee, though the board retains authority to “adopt, adapt or abandon the committee’s recommendations and make their own.”