Wednesday, February 25, 2026

PUSD Bond Watchdog Finds Proper Spending but Flags Staffing Risks

District’s oversight committee tells board the bond program lacked adequate personnel after an outside manager was let go

An independent audit found the Pasadena Unified School District properly spent money from its two voter-approved school construction bonds during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, but the citizens’ committee that monitors that spending warned the district exposed itself to risk by trying to manage the program without enough staff.

The Citizens’ Oversight Committee’s annual report, which covers Measures TT and O — bonds worth a combined $866.3 million approved by voters in 2008 and 2020 — goes before the Board of Education at its regular meeting Thursday at the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room, 351 S. Hudson Ave.

Auditing firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP concluded that “in all significant respects, the District has properly expended the funds held in the Measure TT and Measure O Bond Building Funds on authorized bond projects,” according to the report. The auditors presented their findings to the board on March 27,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

California Democrats Back Establishment Candidates Despite Progressive Pushback

By Maya C. Miller, CALMATTERS

The California Democratic Party is betting that a tried-and-true playbook and standard-bearer candidates offer their best chance to take back the U.S. House in November’s midterms rather than fresh faces and more populist policy planks.

The country’s largest state Democratic party endorsed a slate of aging congressional incumbents at its convention in San Francisco after a weekend that illustrated the high stakes in this year’s midterms. In congressional districts without an incumbent, the party gave the nod to a handful of current state lawmakers who, while younger, are party insiders compared to the grassroots political outsiders who are running as Democrats in contested races.

Among the incumbents who sailed to endorsements were Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, 74, who’s running for his 15th term, and Rep. Brad Sherman of the San Fernando Valley, 71, seeking a 16th term.

In the open race to succeed the late Republican Rep.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Pasadena Unified to Vote Thursday on Eliminating Hundreds of Positions Amid Budget Shortfall

The combined total of more than 411 positions would represent the largest proposed single-year workforce reduction in the district’s modern history

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education is set to vote Thursday on two resolutions that could eliminate more than 250 classified staff positions and reduce certificated services by 161.35 full-time equivalents, the largest workforce reductions in recent district history. 

Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco has addressed the district’s financial situation and layoff prospects in several recent emails to the school community. 

“Reduction-in-force resolutions must be submitted to LACOE in March 2026. These actions are among the most difficult decisions any school system can face. They reflect careful, deliberate efforts, both at the central office and school sites, to preserve teaching and learning while maintaining financial stability,” Dr. Blanco wrote last week. 

United Teachers of Pasadena President Jonathan Gardner, in a Feb. 22 guest opinion published by Pasadena Now, said the planned reductions would affect school social workers,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Free Expert Panel Brings Small Business Recovery Resources Directly to Altadena

Four specialists in lending, disaster preparedness, and county economic development will field questions from fire-affected entrepreneurs on Wednesday

A free panel on small business recovery and resilience will be held Wednesday at a women-owned Altadena event venue, bringing experts in disaster preparedness, county resources, commercial lending, and impact investing to the community still rebuilding 13 months after the Eaton Fire.

TMC Community Capital and Comerica Bank will host “Beyond the Hustle Live” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 409 Woodbury, 409 E. Woodbury Rd., according to the event’s Eventbrite listing.

The panel features four specialists: Lily Bui, director of climate and disaster preparedness and resilience at SoCal Grantmakers; Theresa Saguinsin, vice president and district manager at Comerica Bank; Leila Lee, assistant director at the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity; and Aben Hill, chief lending officer at Pacific Community Ventures, according to event promotional materials.

The event will include time for questions and discussion, information on resources available to small business owners,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

School District Reports Mixed Progress on Midyear Academic Goals; 8th Grade Math Targets Exceeded

Pasadena Unified School District students are showing gains in reading and math at midyear, though the district fell short of several interim targets for Black and Hispanic students in literacy, according to a presentation scheduled for the Board of Education’s Thursday meeting.

The 48-slide report covers the district’s progress on academic goals adopted by the board in three areas: literacy, mathematics and college and career readiness, as measured primarily by the iReady diagnostic assessment administered this winter. The goals are interim benchmarks on the way to longer-term targets the board set for 2030: 75% of third graders proficient in English Language Arts on the CAASPP state test, 70% of fifth graders and 60% of eighth graders proficient in math, and 75% of graduates qualifying as prepared on the College Career Indicator.

In reading, the district reported a nine percentage point increase in students placing into on-level placements — defined as mid or above grade level combined with early on grade level — between fall and winter of the 2025-26 school year,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Altadena Composer Brings Songs of the Enslaved to Free Pasadena Chorale Concert Tonight

The “I Believe” program pairs Michal Dawson Connor’s spiritual arrangements with Margaret Bonds’ civil rights choral work for Black History Month

The Pasadena Chorale will perform a free concert tonight honoring Black History Month with works by two Black American composers, including an Altadena resident whose spiritual arrangements draw on songs his great-grandmother sang to him — songs that originated in slavery.

The concert, titled “I Believe,” pairs original arrangements by composer Michal Dawson Connor with Margaret Bonds’ “Credo,” a seven-movement choral work setting W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1904 call for racial justice and equality. The 85-voice chorale and its High Notes youth ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd. Admission is free, though reservations are required at pasadenachorale.org.

Connor, who lives in Altadena and whose home was singed in the Eaton Fire last January, has spent decades arranging slave songs created before the Civil War. His great-grandmother’s mother was enslaved in Virginia, and the older woman sang those songs to Connor when he was a child.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Many Altadena Renters Were Long-Term Residents Before Eaton Fire, UCLA Policy Brief Finds

Tenant households included seniors and families with children; researchers say those residents face heightened displacement risk

Before the January 2025 Eaton Fire upended the local housing landscape, more than one-fifth of Altadena households were renters, and nearly 70% of those tenants had lived in the community since 2010, according to a new policy brief released Wednesday by UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

The tenant-focused findings — presented as part of LPPI’s broader “Rebuilding Altadena: Housing Recovery After the Eaton Fire” research series — paint a picture of a renter population with deep community roots but far fewer economic protections than homeowners heading into the disaster. Researchers warn that those conditions now place displaced tenants at heightened risk of permanent displacement from the community.

Tenant heads of household in Altadena were more likely to be people of color than homeowner heads of household before the fire, the brief said. More than half of tenant heads of household — 56% — were people of color,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Altadena Included as County Moves to Expand Large-Vehicle Parking Restrictions

Altadena is among the unincorporated communities already subject to Los Angeles County’s restrictions on oversized vehicle parking, and those rules could soon expand further under an ordinance given preliminary approval Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The measure would broaden the list of areas where “nonconforming vehicles” — those exceeding 8 feet in width, 7½ feet in height or 20 feet in length — are barred from parking on county streets.

Current law already prohibits such parking in several unincorporated communities, including Altadena, Ladera Heights, View Park/Windsor Hills, Long Beach, South Whittier/East Whittier/East La Mirada, West Whittier/Los Nietos and Whittier. Such parking is also barred during overnight hours in Marina del Rey without a permit.

Under the extension given tentative approval Tuesday on a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger absent, the restrictions would extend to unincorporated areas around Azusa/Charter Oak/Covina, Del Aire/Lennox, East Los Angeles, East Rancho Dominguez, El Camino Village, Florence-Firestone/Walnut Park, Hawthorne, Rancho Dominguez, West Athens/Westmont, West Carson, West Los Angeles,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Sterling K. Brown, Regina Hall Among Presenters as NAACP Image Awards Return to Pasadena

Sterling K. Brown, Regina Hall, Halle Bailey and Ryan Coogler are among the presenters scheduled to appear at Saturday’s 57th NAACP Image Awards, where Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, organizers announced today.

Additional presenters include Chase Infiniti, Delroy Lindo, Janelle James, Nicole Beharie, Regé-Jean Page, Ryan Michelle Bathé, Miles Caton, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, NAACP Chairman Leon W. Russell and the cast of Tyler Perry’s “Sistas.”

“As pioneers of hip-hop, Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella rewrote the rules and boldly claimed space in a genre that forever changed because of their voices, style, and undeniable talent,” Johnson said in a statement. “Inducting them into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame is a celebration of more than an iconic career — it’s a tribute to trailblazers who opened doors, and inspired generations in a way that still resonates today.”

Past inductees include the Wayans Family, New Edition, Eddie Murphy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Spike Lee and Earth,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

UCLA: Most Altadena Rental Housing Shows No Rebuilding Activity a Year After Eaton Fire

A new policy brief says 74% of fire-impacted units remain stalled, with affordable housing disproportionately destroyed

More than a year after the Eaton Fire swept through this unincorporated community, three-quarters of Altadena’s fire-damaged rental units remain on properties with no rebuilding permits, property sales, or active listings, according to a new policy brief from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute published Wednesday.

The research, the second in a series examining post-fire housing recovery in Altadena, found that the January 2025 fire disproportionately damaged rent-stabilized and naturally affordable rental units — and that displaced tenants, who had substantially lower incomes and higher poverty rates than homeowners before the disaster, face limited pathways to return. Without targeted intervention, the researchers warn, many may be permanently pushed out of the community.

About 74% of identified rental units within the fire perimeter were on properties with no public record of recovery activity one year later, according to the brief. Only 18% of rental units were on properties where owners had filed rebuilding permits,