Thursday, August 27, 2026

PUSD Board Weighs Capital Plan That Defers Five Campuses, Shifts $121 Million

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education is consider at its Thursday, Aug. 27 meeting whether to approve a capital program update that would reallocate $23.8 million in bond money, move planned modernization work at five campuses into master planning review, and recognize that the Measure O capital projects fund is committed $121 million beyond its own proceeds.

Board Report 2010-F would replace the planning assumptions in the five-year bond plan the board adopted in November 2023 under BR 1685-F. The report attributes the update to construction escalation, fire-related impacts, project delivery timing, swing space needs, Measure R planning and updated campus priorities.

The item requests no new bond authorization and does not increase the total Measure O or Measure R authorization approved by voters. 

Rather, It reallocates existing bond planning allocations, updates project schedules, and would authorize the superintendent or designee to implement and administer the updated framework within approved bond purposes, available funding, cash flow, procurement requirements and board policy.

Thursday, August 27, 2026

Power Morphicon Opens Badge Counter at Noon Thursday for Day Zero in Pasadena

Power Morphicon’s badge counter opens at noon Thursday at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., beginning an eight-hour badge window on Day Zero, a day before the Power Rangers convention itself opens.

Pickup runs to 8 p.m. and is open to every membership level, including single-day passes. Gold Ranger memberships include early registration pickup on Day Zero.

A chartered bus to “Power Rangers” filming locations left at 8 a.m. from downtown Pasadena and returned after dusk. Seats were limited and sold per seat at extra cost. The route includes a privately booked stop at the House of the Book, which the organizer identifies as the Command Center.

Thursday carries no panels on the published program, which opens Friday with a 4:30 p.m. ceremony in the Main Hall. The organizer describes Day Zero as badge pickup plus limited programming, and says programming is subject to change.

Scott Zillner has staged the convention nearly every two years since 2010. “Saban had this idea,

Thursday, August 27, 2026

Nearly Total Lunar Eclipse to Be Visible Across Southland

Southern California skywatchers will have a chance Thursday evening to see a nearly total lunar eclipse, with 96% of the moon expected to slip into Earth’s shadow at the height of the celestial event.

Griffith Observatory will open its grounds for public viewing of the partial lunar eclipse beginning at 7:25 p.m. Thursday, weather permitting, and will broadcast the event online from 7:25 p.m. until 12:05 a.m. Friday.

If skies are clear, the eclipse will be visible to the unaided eye throughout Southern California, according to the observatory. No telescope or special eye protection is needed to view a lunar eclipse.

The moon will rise on the southeastern horizon at 7:18 p.m., with the partial, or umbral, phase of the eclipse beginning at 7:34 p.m.

The eclipse will become visible from the Griffith Observatory lawn around 8:15 p.m. and reach its peak at 9:13 p.m., when about 96% of the moon will be covered by Earth’s shadow, officials said.

With nearly the entire lunar surface in Earth’s shadow,

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

County Officials to Join El Patrón Grand Re-Opening in Altadena Thursday

El Patrón Mexican Food Restaurant will hold a grand re-opening celebration at noon Thursday at 2555 N. Lake Ave., 19 months after the Eaton Fire spared the building but emptied the neighborhood around it.

Those expected to attend include owner Margarita “Maggie” Cortez; Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district covers Altadena; Kelly LoBianco, director of the county Department of Economic Opportunity; Roberto Barragán, executive director of ICON CDC; and representatives of the Altadena Chamber of Commerce, according to the event announcement.

The celebration marks the restaurant’s return and the continuing recovery of Altadena’s business district.

El Patrón was supported in part by a grant from ICON CDC, which, working with the county, helped provide grants to 18 brick-and-mortar businesses in Altadena, according to the event announcement.

El Patrón’s building was not damaged in the January 2025 fire, but Cortez has said she lost 85 percent of her regular customers, many of whom were forced to relocate away after their homes burned.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

LA84 Foundation Grant Will Fund Swim Instruction for Every Third Grader at 14 Pasadena Unified Schools

Every third grader at 14 Pasadena Unified School District schools will receive swim instruction through the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center under a new Learn to Swim grant from the LA84 Foundation, the foundation announced in a news release. The grant will support more than 1,000 youth.

The Pasadena award is part of $330,000 the foundation distributed to eight organizations across Southern California, an investment the foundation said will bring water safety education to 10,000 young people. Pasadena is one of seven cities named in the round, along with Bell Gardens, El Centro, El Monte, Rialto, Riverside and National City, spanning Los Angeles, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

“Our partnership with Pasadena Unified School District and alignment with the LA84 Foundation have made it possible to bring this life-saving intervention to over 30,000 youth throughout our history,” Arvin Varma, chief operating officer of the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, said in the release. “This year, we’re on track to save lives, strengthen our community, and empower future generations.”

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

MALDEF Appeals Ruling That Pasadena Unified Did Not Discriminate in School Closures

Briefing opened Monday in the civil rights group’s challenge to the January judgment for the district

A Latino civil rights organization is asking a state appeals court to overturn a judgment that found the Pasadena Unified School District did not violate state law when it closed three elementary schools. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents Latino parents and students, filed suit on behalf of seven Latino parents whose children were transferred to other schools after the closures. The organization argues that California law bars education decisions with significant discriminatory effects, whether or not officials intended them.

Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF’s president and general counsel, made that argument in a statement released Tuesday.

“Civil rights protections are only real if judges understand them and apply them with fairness and diligence. California law categorically protects against significant discriminatory effects in education decision-making, regardless of whether the effects are intentional or not. Latino students here plainly bore the brunt of the dislocation,

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

With Clock Ticking, California Lawmakers Reject Key Parts of Newsom’s Wildfire Plan

By Jeanne Kuang and Levi Sumagaysay, CALMATTERS

With only six days left in the legislative session, lawmakers refuse to back several of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s controversial proposals for reducing how much for-profit utility companies must pay after causing a wildfire.

Assembly and Senate lawmakers oppose the governor’s proposals to limit survivors’ compensation for pain and suffering, curb reimbursements to insurance companies for massive payouts to homeowners when power lines spark a fire and limit how much local governments can recoup for incinerated infrastructure, according to legislative sources and internal memos obtained by CalMatters.

Those are among the most contentious parts of a high-stakes package of wildfire policies Newsom has been negotiating behind closed doors at the end of his final legislative session as governor.

Neither the governor’s office nor leaders in the Senate and Assembly have released the text of the proposals they are negotiating, setting the stage for them to potentially push through a complex package of policies with little public hearing in the final days of the session that ends Aug.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Beyond the Man-Eating Plant: Altadena Music Theatre Takes a Deeper Look at Little Shop of Horrors

By SUZANNE YORK

Following the sold-out success of Grease, Altadena Music Theatre returns with a darker, deeper and deliciously entertaining production of the beloved musical

What happens when ambition becomes more important than integrity? How much will someone sacrifice to escape poverty? And what happens when the thing that promises to save us becomes the very thing that destroys us?

Those questions lurk beneath the outrageous comedy, infectious music and man-eating plant at the center of Altadena Music Theatre’s production of Little Shop of Horrors, opening September 3 at Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena.

Directed by Altadena Music Theatre founder Sarah Azcarate, the production looks beyond the camp and comedy of Little Shop of Horrors to explore the darker psychological themes embedded in the musical: poverty, addiction, abuse, trauma, ambition, loneliness and the profound human desire to feel worthy.

After the company’s sold-out productions of Hair, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls and, most recently, Grease,

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Free Adult English Class Meets Wednesday Morning at Altadena’s Bob Lucas Library

The Altadena Library District’s free adult English class meets Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Literacy Center at the Bob Lucas Memorial Library and Literacy Center, 2659 Lincoln Ave.

The district describes the classes as designed to help students obtain basic English fluency and holds them Mondays through Thursdays at the same hour. The class is listed for ages 18 and over, and there is no fee.

It is part of the district’s adult learning and literacy services, housed at Bob Lucas. The district’s adult literacy program, Let’s Read Altadena, has served Altadena residents since 1988 and is funded in part by a grant from the California State Library.

The branch reopened Aug. 16, 2025, after a 16-month renovation that added a 1,000-square-foot expansion — about 50% more space — a children’s area and the literacy center where the class now meets. It is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

A second district program set for Wednesday will not go forward.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Nine Pasadena and Altadena Campuses Hold Back-to-School Night Wednesday on a Districtwide Minimum Day

Nine Pasadena Unified School District campuses in Pasadena and Altadena hold Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, Aug. 26, a date the district has designated a minimum day districtwide.

Families attend at their own child’s school, and most campuses open from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Six of the nine sit at Pasadena addresses and two at Altadena addresses.

In Pasadena: Don Benito Fundamental, 3700 Denair St.; Eugene Field Elementary, 3600 E. Sierra Madre Blvd.; Henry W. Longfellow Elementary, 1065 E. Washington Blvd.; Norma Coombs Elementary, 2600 Paloma St.; and Washington Elementary STEM Magnet, 1520 N. Raymond Ave. John Muir High School Early College Magnet, 1905 N. Lincoln Ave., runs 5 to 7:30 p.m.

In Altadena: Altadena Arts Magnet, 743 E. Calaveras St., and Mary W. Jackson STEAM Multilingual Magnet Elementary, 593 W. Woodbury Rd.

PALS holds its event the same evening. The PUSD Office of Enrollment has its time and location.

Because Aug. 26 is a minimum day, students are dismissed early that afternoon.