Friday, February 27, 2026

Teachers, Parents Flood PUSD Board Meeting to Oppose Layoffs

LEAD REPORTER EDDIE RIVERA

More than two dozen speakers urged district to delay workforce reduction vote, citing budget surpluses and harm to students prior to board’s decision to approve the layoffs

[Revised] Dozens of Pasadena Unified teachers, parents and students crowded a Board of Education meeting Thursday, urging trustees to halt a proposed round of layoffs they said would destabilize classrooms, cut essential programs and further strain schools still reeling from the Eaton Fire.

Twenty-six people submitted public comment cards for the Feb. 26 meeting, prompting the board to cap remarks at two minutes per speaker. One after another, speakers pressed trustees to delay a vote on reduction-in-force resolutions, arguing the cuts were driven by conservative budget assumptions rather than the district’s actual financial position.

“This feels like the movie Groundhog Day,” said longtime PUSD teacher Armando Mayer. “The same conversations, the same decisions, the same consequences. It is disheartening to say that it feels like we haven’t learned a darn thing.”

In the end,

Friday, February 27, 2026

PUSD Board Approves Layoff Resolutions Eliminating More Than 160 Certificated Positions

LEAD REPORTER EDDIE RIVERA

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education on Thursday night approved two resolutions authorizing sweeping staff reductions for the 2026-2027 school year, eliminating 161.35 full-time equivalent certificated positions and scores of classified positions across nearly every department and school level in the district.

The actions come as the district faces a $30 million-plus structural budget deficit and pressure from the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), which had warned that PUSD risked losing local control if it did not put forward a credible plan to reduce expenditures in excess of $35 million.

The meeting included emotional public comment from parents, students, teachers, labor representatives, and community members. More than an hour’s worth of speakers urged the board to rethink cuts to programs such as science teachers, librarians, arts, athletics, and the Center for Independent Study, which families say retains students who might otherwise leave the district. A number of families described the cuts as harmful to student learning and long-term stability.

Friday, February 27, 2026

What Do Theme Parks and a Destroyed Imperial Garden Have in Common?

A guided walk at The Huntington explores the surprising design connections between classical Chinese gardens and modern theme parks

Walk through the entrance of The Huntington’s Chinese Garden and you’ll pass beneath a wooden placard inscribed “Bie You Dong Tian” — “Another World Lies Beyond.” For art historian Patricia J. Yu, that phrase is the opening argument in a larger story linking ancient imperial gardens to Disneyland.

On Saturday, Feb. 28, Yu will lead a two-hour guided walk through Liu Fang Yuan, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The program explores how principles of classical Chinese garden design reappear in the world’s modern theme parks.

The walk centers on the Yuanming Yuan — the Garden of Perfect Brightness — a great Qing dynasty imperial garden outside Beijing that was partially destroyed by Anglo-French forces in 1860. Yu’s book project traces the garden’s “afterlives” as it has been reconstructed and reimagined across diplomatic spaces,

Friday, February 27, 2026

Pasadena Civic Ballet Takes ‘Aladdin’ to the Stage at San Gabriel Mission Playhouse

Nonprofit youth ballet company mounts large-scale production featuring more than 100 dancers

Pasadena Civic Ballet brings its full-length story ballet “Aladdin” to the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse this weekend, with performances Saturday, Feb. 28, and Sunday, March 1.

The production features a cast of more than 100 dancers performing amid lavish costumes, animated sets and aerial artistry — including a magical flying carpet. “This spectacular ballet brings to life a world of romance, comedy, and adventure as Aladdin sets off on a magical journey to win the heart of the Princess and outwit the wicked Sultan,” according to the Mission Playhouse event listing.

Founded in 1980 by Elly Charlotte Van-Dyke, Pasadena Civic Ballet is a nonprofit organization of pre-professional and professional dancers that has trained children and adults in the Pasadena area for more than four decades. The company has been directed since 2000 by Diane De Franco Browne, Tania Grafos and Zoe Vidalakis. Its faculty includes alumni of American Ballet Theatre,

Friday, February 27, 2026

Pasadena’s Handmade Market Comes Home for Its 11th Year Under the Oaks

Butterflies will be the newest artisans at Central Park this spring.

The Jackalope Indie Artisan Fair, which held its first event under the oaks at 275 S. Raymond Ave. in 2015, returns to Old Pasadena on April 25 and 26 with more than 200 juried makers, an interactive butterfly garden — a first for the fair — and free craft workshops run by its nonprofit arm. Admission is free.

The two-day market, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, showcases handmade goods only. Co-founder Sara Diederich said that policy is non-negotiable.

“First and foremost, our event focuses on handmade,” Diederich said. “We really want to make sure that artists are creating their work by hand. We’re not looking for vintage or AI-generated work. We want to have work that was hand-created by all the artists that are part of the event.”

Diederich and co-founder Melissa Kohout launched Jackalope in Pasadena after meeting at an international arts organization in Los Angeles in 2014.

Thursday, February 26, 2026

It’s Guitar Night on Lincoln Avenue

By EDDIE RIVERA

In a nondescript industrial park, a ‘backyard’ sanctuary for broken strings and second chances

On a surprisingly cold Pasadena evening, a long line formed outside a warehouse tucked into an industrial park along Lincoln Avenue. Inside, beneath stage lights and the low murmur of guitars tuning up, guitars moved from hand to hand like patients in triage. Some needed strings. Others needed more serious attention—neck resets, wiring repairs, encouragement. Mostly, they needed someone who knew what they were doing.

The gathering, known simply as Guitar Night, was only in its second iteration. It already had the feeling of something inevitable, as guitarists of all ages—boys and girls, men and women—brought their precious guitars in to see the professionals.

Matt Chait, a guitarist who helped organize the event, traced the evening’s origin to the aftermath of the Eaton Fire and a pair of teenage girls who were raising money for fire victims through backyard shows. Matt met their mom,

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Wildfire Recovery Funds Could Put $350,000 Toward Home Purchases for Pasadena, Altadena Residents

A federal program offers forgivable loans to LA County households who lived in fire hazard zones during the 2018 wildfires

Residents of Pasadena and Altadena who were living in the foothill neighborhoods that sit within designated fire hazard zones in 2018 may qualify for up to $350,000 in homebuyer assistance — money that never has to be paid back.

The ReCoverCA Homebuyer Assistance Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by Golden State Finance Authority, provides forgivable loans to low- and moderate-income households in Los Angeles County who lived in High or Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones during the 2018 California wildfires. The zero-interest loans carry no monthly payments and are forgiven entirely after five years of ownership and occupancy. The program does not cover the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

Los Angeles County is one of four qualifying counties, alongside Butte, Lake, and Shasta. The 2018 Woolsey Fire, which burned nearly 97,000 acres across Los Angeles and Ventura counties,

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Pasadena Unified Brings City, County and Community Groups Together for Summer Fair

The district’s third annual resource event lets families explore programs from multiple agencies in one evening

Families trying to figure out what their children will do this summer can get answers from the school district, the city, the county, and a roster of community organizations — all in one room, in one hour.

Pasadena Unified School District’s third annual summer program and resource fair will bring representatives from PUSD, the City of Pasadena, the County of Los Angeles, and local community groups to John Muir High School on March 4 from 6 to 7 p.m., according to a district announcement. The fair is designed to give families and caregivers a consolidated look at summer programs, learning resources, and enrichment options available to their children.

The event takes place at John Muir High School, 1905 N Lincoln Ave., in Pasadena. Families can sign up online through the district’s registration form.

The fair also offers families a chance to connect with PUSD’s Family and Community Engagement team,

Thursday, February 26, 2026

West Altadenans Plan Ceremonial Walk Through the Burn Zone, First of Five Annual Processions

Hands in the Soil leads a route-based healing arts experience at Loma Alta Park on February 28

Its scarred path through West Altadena bears the marks of the Eaton Fire — cleared lots, rebuilt foundations, stretches of sidewalk where the oaks are charred. On Saturday, February 28, a procession of neighbors will walk throughthat path together, not in protest, and not in parade, but in what organizers describe poetically as a ‘ceremony in motion.’

The Through the Fire Procession, organized by the Pasadena-based nonprofit Hands in the Soil, will route participants through the burn zone from Loma Alta Park with curated moments of sound, prayer, and land-based offerings along the way, according to the organization.

It is the first of what organizers envision as five annual processions intended to support long-term recovery through arts-based healing and collective presence.

“We gather to honor what was changed, what was lost, and what continues to endure,” the organization states on its event page.

Thursday, February 26, 2026

New Walking Group Draws 50 Altadena Residents to Post-Fire Community Outing

Free monthly club founded by a crisis counselor turned construction liaison aims to rebuild neighborhood bonds

More than 50 Altadena residents walked together through their neighborhood on February 15, the first outing for a new community walking group created to help neighbors reconnect more than 13 months after the Eaton Fire.

The Altadena Walk Club, a free monthly group, was founded by Mathew Rahban, who served as a crisis counselor for fire survivors before becoming Client & Community Relations Director at Rahban Development, his family’s Beverly Hills-based construction firm that has been rebuilding homes in Altadena. Rahban said the group was created to give residents a low-barrier way to move and reconnect in a community still recovering from a fire that destroyed more than 9,400 structures.

Participants — families with children, residents with dogs, community members of various ages — gathered at Unincorporated Coffee on Lincoln Avenue before walking toward Good Neighbor Bar and back, according to a press release announcing the event.