Room for PUSD Reform

THE Pasadena Unified School District, largest in the region, does have a way of making news.

Its job is not easy: dealing with massive change in its top administrative ranks; trying to decide what to do with an aging infrastructure on its campuses; most of all, educating 20,000 students, many of them from poor backgrounds, many more from immigrant families in which English is not their first language.

Sometimes the news is even good news. Superintendent Edwin Diaz is paring down the ranks in the famously unwieldy bureaucracy at the Ed Center. He has, importantly, also added a chief of staff position that is paid for by a local foundation – the kind of role that can increase efficiency, not add to the red tape. One of those administrators, Debra DeBose, a former elementary principal, this week returned to that crucial duty at Willard International Baccalaureate Elementary School. There is talk that the long- stalled and yet crushingly obvious notion of leasing out the pricey real estate at district headquarters on South Hudson Avenue may be gaining traction.

And while sometimes yet another charter school within the district would not be good news – the now defunct Rhythms of the Village charter was a disaster – a charter aimed at potential drop- outs to be run by the nonprofit Learning Works, which already operates a successful tutoring program in Pasadena, is likely to be a plus.

Over the years, there had been so many exceptions made about the grade configurations at many of the district’s 28 schools that it had become a hodgepodge. A recent board move to standardize K-5 campuses at the elementary level, 6-8 at the middle schools and 9- 12 at district high schools will at least ease the confusion. But conformity is no panacea. Academics who study the issue say it may make more sense to eliminate the middle-school concept in the interest of campus and student stability. (Different generations tend to believe that the way they went to school was best. There are thousands of PUSDers who fondly recall going to what were then junior highs through 10th grade and then on to a high school located within the current PCC campus that included the option of two years of college at the same location. And the K-6, 7-9, 10-12 configuration allowed mature students at three levels to be campus leaders, and was in place at one of the district’s highest points in achievement and innovation.)

Now the massive question facing the district is on the wisdom of the new construction bond issue a divided board voted this month to place on the ballot in November. The $350 million measure, which would hike property taxes for a homeowner at the current median house price of $550,000 by more than $300 a year, could give the impression of valuing buildings over educational innovation. Both are certainly necessary. But the PUSD is still in a comeback mode both in terms of perception and reality for its customers – the residents of Altadena, Sierra Madre and Pasadena. It’s a savvy time to attempt the vote – a high-turnout election and just a 55 percent threshold for success. But if it works, the money surely needs to be handled better than the decade-old Measure Y – which did some good on some campuses, yet never reached others in dire need.

(c) 2008 San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.