Thursday, September 10, 2026

School Board to Consider Waiver Request After Missing State Classroom Pay Minimum by $11.4 Million

District staff report cites $15.9 million in fire-related spending among the reasons for the 2025-26 shortfall

The Pasadena Board of Education tonight will consider whether to ask the Los Angeles County Office of Education to exempt the district from a state classroom spending requirement it missed by $11.4 million in 2025-26, according to a staff report.

California Education Code Section 41372 requires unified school districts to spend at least 55% of their annual expenditures on classroom teacher and aide salaries. Pasadena Unified’s unaudited 2025-26 figure is 50.52%, 4.48 percentage points below the minimum, according to Board Report No. 21-B, submitted by Chief Business Officer Arik Avanesyans and approved by Superintendent Elizabeth J. Blanco, Ed.D.

The district’s application, which checks “Serious hardship to the school district” as the reason for the request, puts the deficiency at $11,401,607.87, based on a current expense of education of $254,500,175.78.

A hardship request calls for a written explanation, the district’s latest interim report and a multiyear projection for the current and two subsequent fiscal years that reflects the financial impact of meeting the requirement.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

LA County Probing Farmers Insurance Over Wildfire Survivor Claims

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Los Angeles County is investigating Farmers Insurance Company’s handling of insurance claims filed by policyholders affected by the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades Fires, officials announced Wednesday.

The investigation focuses on potential violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law and “follows growing complaints from residents about delays, refusals to pay for testing and remediation of lead and other contamination, underpayments, and denials of legitimate wildfire claims,” according to a statement from the county.

“Eaton Fire survivors did everything right — responsibly paying their premiums year after year — but when disaster hit, Farmers left them with a contaminated home and refused to pay for testing and cleanup,” County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said. “That’s an unfair business practice that needs to end now. My constituents shouldn’t have to walk back into homes with lead and asbestos because an insurance company won’t pay for the test that would prove it’s there. We are going to hold Farmers accountable to the law,

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Federal Medi-Cal Rules Narrow Oct. 1 for Some Immigrants in Pasadena and Altadena; County Offers Free Webinars

Refugees, asylees, humanitarian parolees and survivors of domestic violence or trafficking are the groups the state has named

Federal rules narrowing who qualifies for full-scope Medi-Cal take effect Oct. 1, and Los Angeles County is holding free webinars in several languages to help Pasadena and Altadena residents work out whether they are affected.

Nobody in the affected group loses coverage that day. The state says people who are affected will keep state-funded full-scope Medi-Cal until June 30, 2027, and that starting July 1, 2027 they will be able to get only pregnancy-related care and emergency services.

The California Department of Health Care Services names the affected groups as refugees and asylees, humanitarian parolees admitted to the United States for at least a year, and survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking with a pending immigration case.

The change comes from Section 71109 of the federal law known as H.R. 1, which amends the definition of a Qualified Non-Citizen effective Oct.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Pasadena Unified Opens Attendance Awareness Month With Its ‘Showing Up Matters for R.E.A.L.’ Campaign

The district also says its board meets in special session Thursday, a middle school sports clinic follows Sept. 19, and the 79th Turkey Tussle returns to the Rose Bowl on Oct. 28

Pasadena Unified School District is marking September as Attendance Awareness Month with its “Showing Up Matters for R.E.A.L.” campaign, which the district says is now in its fourth year.

The stakes are set out on the district’s own attendance pages: chronic absenteeism means missing 10% or more of the school year, and a student who is chronically absent in any year between eighth and 12th grade is 7.4 times more likely to drop out.

The campaign runs from the start of August to the close of September. In the district’s version of the acronym, the letters stand for relationships, engagement, access and learning — building strong connections, increasing student involvement, connecting families to resources and supporting academic success. The framework was developed by Attendance Works, a national initiative on school attendance.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

California Housing Faces Mixed Signals as Rates Climb Back Toward 7%

By EDDIE RIVERA

California Housing Faces Mixed Signals as Rates Climb Back Toward 7%

A resilient labor market is colliding with rising borrowing costs and mounting household financial strain, leaving California’s housing market in an uncertain holding pattern, according to a new report from the California Association of Realtors.

Mortgage rates have pushed back toward the 7% threshold in recent weeks, driven by renewed tensions in the Middle East and climbing energy prices that have rattled bond markets, the report found. Mortgage News Daily data cited in the analysis show top-tier 30-year fixed rates entering the upper-6% range, with many borrowers now facing rates at or above 7% — largely erasing gains made earlier in the spring homebuying season.

The rate pressure is already showing up in construction figures. Census Bureau data referenced in the report indicate private residential construction spending fell 1.3% in July from the prior month and dropped 7.3% from a year earlier — the fourth straight monthly decline.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Career Fair Puts Jobs, Resources Under One Roof

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

Free haircuts, manicures and workshops accompany hiring Thursday at Robinson Park

Job seekers can polish their résumés, meet prospective employers and even sharpen their look Thursday when a Pasadena career fair brings hiring opportunities, job-search help and free haircuts and manicures under one roof.

The Career and Resource Fair, hosted by Councilmember Justin L. Jones and the Foothill Workforce Development Board, will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Robinson Park Recreation Center, 1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave.

The event is designed to connect entry-level and experienced job seekers with employers across a range of industries while providing resources aimed at helping participants improve their chances of landing a job.

Several Pasadena departments and agencies are expected to participate, including the Pasadena Fire Department, Pasadena Police Department, Pasadena Library, Pasadena Transit, Pasadena Center Operating Company and Municipal Assistance, Solutions, and Hiring, known as MASH.

Job seekers will also be able to take part in professional development workshops focused on résumé writing,

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Altadena Coalition Says Eaton Fire Case Management Program Will Close Sept. 30 Over Unpaid FEMA Money

An Altadena-based coalition of Eaton Fire recovery groups said Tuesday the federally funded program that gives fire survivors case managers will shut down Sept. 30 because FEMA has not paid $10 million it approved.

Unless the agency acts, about 109 program positions will be eliminated and more than 1,500 survivors will lose their case manager, the Eaton Fire Collaborative said. Providers, survivors and elected officials plan to press the case at a news conference in Altadena on Thursday.

California asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $26 million to run the Disaster Case Management Program, the collaborative said in its release. The agency approved $13 million and has paid $3 million so far. The $10 million balance, which the California Department of Social Services says it can no longer front, is what is forcing the shutdown, according to the coalition, which said the closure would come short of FEMA’s standard 24-month operating period for disaster case management.

The Disaster Case Management Program is a FEMA-funded program that provides case management and long-term recovery support to survivors of the Eaton and Palisades wildfires,

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Funders to Tour Completed Altadena Rebuilds Wednesday

Southern California Grantmakers closes a two-part seminar with a site visit to the CORE Response Hub on Lake Avenue

Philanthropic funders and cross-sector partners come to Altadena on Wednesday, Sept. 9, for a walkthrough of completed rebuilds led by volunteer rebuild groups and developers.

The seminar runs from 10 a.m. to noon and opens with a site visit to the Hub, the Altadena recovery center run by CORE Response, the Community Organized Relief Effort.

The seminar is free but open only to funders and cross-sector partners in philanthropy, according to the event listing published by Southern California Grantmakers.

It is the second of a two-part seminar. Southern California Grantmakers, which convenes the series, says the session will map Altadena’s recovery ecosystem across case management, planning, environmental remediation, permitting, construction, workforce development and community ownership.

The organization says the seminar is grounded in the principle that housing is a fundamental right and is intended to align funders,

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Hearing Delayed in PUSD Board President’s Lawsuit Against Recall

By ANDRÉ COLEMAN, Managing Editor, and JAMES MACPHERSON

Tina Fredericks’ suit to block a recall petition returns to Los Angeles Superior Court on Oct. 13 after an amended filing was served just one court day before the hearing

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Tuesday postponed a scheduling hearing in the lawsuit Pasadena Unified School District Board President Tina Fredericks filed to stop a recall petition against her, moving the matter to Oct. 13.

The delay leaves Fredericks’ request that the court bar Los Angeles County election officials from allowing the petition to circulate unresolved for another five weeks. 

The Committee to Protect PUSD Schools, which is organizing the recall, said after the hearing that it would continue to organize, speak and circulate petitions.

Fredericks filed the lawsuit July 2, naming the county registrar-recorder and 124 unidentified “Doe” defendants. The lawsuit sought to stop circulation of the recall petition and ultimately have it declared invalid.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Here Is What Happens if the PUSD Recall Is Successful

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

Under state elections law, the school board — not voters — would appoint replacements for any trustee removed by recall

If two school board members up for recall are removed from office, the people will not have a vote in their replacement.

Local residents are currently circulating petitions to place a ballot measure on the ballot that could allow local residents to recall Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) School Board President Tina Fredericks and Trustee Scott Harden.

The pair is accused by some parents of violating the Brown Act with two other trustees, Kim Kenne and Yarma Velázquez, in a discussion regarding school closures.

Kenne is seeking reelection and Velázquez has announced she will not seek reelection.

Neither Kenne nor Velázquez are subjects of recall movements.

If Fredericks and Harden are removed by recall, the board will appoint their replacements.

“There shall not be an election for a successor in a recall of a local officer pursuant to Chapter 3 of Division 11 of the Elections Code,”