Friday, October 23, 2026

Split Pasadena Unified School District Board Directs Blanco to Bring ‘Transformation’ Process for Approval November 19

Trustees disagreed over whether a visioning process should come first

A divided Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education on Thursday directed Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco to bring a “district transformation process” to the Board for approval Nov. 19 — just days after the upcoming election for three of the Board’s seven seats.

The direction covers the structure and responsibilities of a staff-facilitated community committee and a target date for seating it. Trustee Scott Harden made the motion, which Trustee Kimberly Kenne seconded. The motion to table the item until a visioning process is complete failed after Trustee Michelle Richardson Bailey moved to table it.

The process stems from Resolution 2894, adopted 4-3 in June after a consolidation review ended without the Board accepting a proposed equity impact report. The resolution cites declining enrollment and operating deficits the District still faces for the next three years. Building conditions, Blanco said Thursday, are “one of the factors where you’re making decisions about consolidation.”

The Nov. 19 meeting falls between the Nov. 3 election and Dec. 11, when, under state law, terms actually begin for trustees elected this year.

Districts 1, 3 and 7 are on the ballot, and Kenne and Richardson Bailey are seeking reelection. Trustee Yarma Velázquez, who represents District 7, is not on the ballot.

Harden’s motion replaced “plan” with “process” and “by” with “for approval at,” and added the target date. “A plan is an outcome of something. And so a process is a means,” he said. He said analysis of academics, programs, enrollment, facilities and finances “can happen concurrently” with visioning.

Kenne said the transformation definition the Board voted on Oct. 8 already lists the processes involved, including community engagement and enrollment, facility and financial analysis.

“We can’t have the conversations with the community until we start,” she said.

Velázquez said visioning and transformation should happen concurrently.

“Information is the pathway, the only pathway to achieving solutions,” she said.

Richardson Bailey said she was concerned the new wording did not align with the Board’s resolution.

“You don’t put the transformation plan before you complete the vision,” she said.

Trustee Jennifer Hall Lee, who seconded the tabling motion, said “a visioning process should come first.” Trustee Patrice Marshall McKenzie said “order of operations matters” and that she was “not confident at all” the Board was positioned to make a consequential decision.

Blanco said she would recommend a sequential process, with visioning before the community committee forms, though “it can be one continuous process.”

She asked trustees to weigh staff capacity, noting three chief positions had been combined into one; a District administrator said a new business and human resources system is set to go live in April 2027.

Running “two huge processes simultaneously would be, I think, a lot for us to do,” Blanco said.

Board President Tina Fredericks said staff capacity would inform a realistic timeline.

The committee structure was chosen Oct. 8, when the Board voted 4-3 for Richardson Bailey’s substitute motion selecting a staff-facilitated community committee over a Board subcommittee. Kenne, Velázquez and Fredericks voted no. Blanco said those at a later debrief “were unclear that there was any clear direction other than the formation of a community committee,” which she said is why the item was on Thursday’s agenda.

Later Thursday, the Board approved a $270,000 contract with Prospect Studio for strategic visioning, to be paid with Assembly Bill 100 funds. The contract runs through Aug. 31, 2027. Blanco called it a sole-source product. The firm’s proposal says visioning “should precede any decisions about school consolidation” — unless the transformation process moves soon toward consolidation decisions this year, in which case visioning should follow.

Kenne questioned whether the contract would deliver the specifics the transformation process needs.

All three public speakers opposed it. One noted the election was less than two weeks away.

The Board’s next regular meeting is Nov. 19. Written public comment can be emailed to publiccomment@pusd.us.

Earlier Thursday, Denise Arnst, an Upper Hastings Ranch resident whose children attended Don Benito Fundamental School, urged trustees to partner with her neighborhood. “Please don’t let this district transformation process be another missed opportunity,” she said.