Tuesday, May 19, 2026

School Board Scandal Continues to Grow as ‘Fredericks Consolidation Plan’ Published

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

Four school board members remain under fire for allegedly violating the state’s open meeting laws and for working with a consultant before the district had hired the firm to handle school closures.

According to emails obtained by a district parent and funneled to news outlets, Pasadena Unified School District Board President Tina Fredericks and board members Scott Harden, Kim Kenne and Yarma Velázquez allegedly coordinated privately with consultants and one another ahead of the district’s public school consolidation process, prompting accusations they violated California’s Ralph M. Brown Act.

“I always assumed they were doing the right thing,” said Denise Robb, whose child attends Blair High School. “But reading some of those messages made me feel like they didn’t really care much about the constituents and the families.”

On Sunday a presentation was released that appears to show Fredericks’ plan to close schools.

A presentation titled “Pasadena Unified School District Consolidation Plan,” outlining a sweeping restructuring proposal that would shrink the district from 13 elementary schools to 10, six middle schools to three and four high schools to two.

The presentation being attributed to Fredericks proposed closing Don Benito, Norma Coombs and Altadena Arts elementary schools, as well as McKinley, Blair and Eliot middle schools.

Under the plan, Marshall would become a grades 6-8 campus, while Blair and Marshall’s high school programs would close and the District’s International Baccalaureate high school program would move to Pasadena High School.

The slides also reportedly identified potential redevelopment concepts for shuttered campuses, including workforce housing, leased educational space, a centralized children’s center, adult education facilities, athletic complexes and a performing arts center.

One purported proposal referenced a previous district workforce housing investment projected to generate roughly $1.3 million annually in revenue.

Of the four board members, only Kenne responded to Pasadena Now’s request for comment, writing in an email: “Sorry, I can’t comment right now.”

The controversy stems from a cache of emails and text messages released through California Public Records Act requests and reviewed by parents and local media outlets.

According to those documents, Fredericks allegedly began discussions with a Northern California education consulting firm in November and later invited Velázquez and Harden into the conversations.

Fredericks also allegedly sent the consultant a list of questions focused on school closures before the district formally retained the firm, according to media reports.

Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco later contacted Total School Solutions independently, apparently unaware of any prior communications between trustees and consultants, according to media reports.

An executive with the consulting firm allegedly subsequently informed Fredericks, Harden and Velázquez that Blanco had reached out regarding hiring consultant Joseph Pandolfo to lead the Superintendent’s Consolidation Advisory Committee.

Fredericks reportedly later wrote that she would keep her involvement and that of Velázquez and Harden “from Dr. Blanco.”

The district later approved a contract worth about $233,000 with Total School Solutions to oversee the consolidation process in a 5-2 vote.

Critics now contend the process was not independent and may have violated state open meeting laws prohibiting serial private communications among a majority of elected officials.

The Ralph M. Brown Act governs open meetings by legislative bodies in the state.

The law prohibits a majority of members of a legislative body, such as a seven-member school board, from discussing, deliberating or developing agreement on public business outside a properly noticed public meeting.

In this case, critics argue the alleged conduct may have violated the law because four trustees — a majority of the Pasadena Unified Board — allegedly engaged in private discussions about school consolidation plans before the issue was publicly debated, using emails, consultants and serial conversations instead of open agendized meetings.

The law also prohibits “daisy chain” and “spoke-and-wheel” communications, terms used under California law to describe indirect communications through intermediaries that can be used to build consensus outside public view.

“At this point in time, Tina, Scott, Yarma, and Kim should resign their positions because they have demonstrated to the Pasadena Unified School District community that they cannot or will not lead in good faith,” said parent Sara Poggi during public comment at the Board’s special meeting last Friday.

Multiple speakers at a meeting last week echoed concerns about transparency and public trust.

Parent Lisa Kroese accused the board majority of disregarding recommendations from the School Consolidation Advisory Committee, which she said had strongly opposed consolidations. Kroese also questioned whether a competitive bidding process would have produced a different consultant had district administrators known about the prior contacts.

Kroese was Fredericks’ opponent in the last School Board elections.

Other parents and community members warned that the controversy had expanded beyond the district’s most engaged families and was drawing scrutiny across Pasadena and Sierra Madre. Several speakers threatened recalls, legal complaints and continued public pressure if the trustees do not resign.

A student from Thurgood Marshall Secondary School also addressed the board, saying the allegations were teaching students “a lesson that I don’t think the district wants us to learn” about public service and transparency.

Sierra Madre Mayor Kris Lowe publicly called for Fredericks to resign and warned that community members would pursue a recall campaign if she refused to step down.

Lowe, a longtime public school educator, accused the four trustees of engaging in “illegal coordination” that led to the vote approving the district’s “Consolidation 2027″ plan before the public engagement process had concluded.

The head of the teachers union told Pasadena Now that United Teachers of Pasadena has not taken a formal position on the allegations and does not anticipate joining calls for the trustees to resign.

United Teachers of Pasadena President Jonathan Gardner told Pasadena Now the union is not initiating action against the Board of Education and does not expect to participate in any litigation that may emerge from the controversy.

Gardner characterized public demands for resignations and recalls as “political grandstanding.” He said the district’s failure to honor budget commitments made last fall represented a more significant breach of trust.

“For us, that’s a much bigger violation of the public trust than what’s being shared at this time because those are promises that were made, that we discussed, that were approved,” Gardner said.

Gardner said no union members had raised concerns with him regarding the allegations against the trustees.

He also criticized the school consolidation process itself, saying the outside consultants “have not managed to provide a process that is trustworthy” and that “people have a lot of questions about it.”