INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Public Records Suggest PUSD Consolidation Process Was Underway Before Consultant Was Officially Hired (Photo – Graphics Dept.)
Public Records Suggest PUSD Consolidation Process Was Underway Before Consultant Was Officially Hired.
By the Staff of Colorado Boulevard Newspaper
Internal Pasadena Unified School District documents released through public records requests describe discussions among PUSD Board members and consultants regarding school consolidation plans months before PUSD formally hired Total School Solutions (TSS) as the independent consultant for the process.
According to the records, current Board President Tina Fredericks developed a proposal titled “Consolidation 2027” during Fall 2025 while PUSD was considering budget reductions. In an October 30, 2025 email to Board member Yarma Velazquez, Fredericks wrote that she had created “an entire presentation called ‘Consolidation 2027′” that she had “been working on for several weeks.”
Fredericks wrote that the presentation “was not intended for the public but as a visual aid to explain my findings to individuals,” and that she wanted to review it privately with Velazquez.
The emails show Fredericks advocating for accelerated school closures. In the same communication, she wrote, “There’s no reason to prolong the inevitable.”
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The documents state that Fredericks’ proposal included closing Don Benito Fundamental School, a school in her district, and moving students to Webster Elementary School. Fredericks wrote that Don Benito had “the worst ADA violations of any PUSD school” and noted that the campus was located in “a prime real estate location — ideal for additional housing.”
Additional communications indicate Fredericks also supported closing “small schools” and consolidating at least one high school before the 2026–27 school year.
Records show Fredericks discussed the consolidation plans with other PUSD Board members, including Scott Harden. In text messages between Harden and Board member Kim Kenne, both discussed Fredericks’ proposal. Harden referred to the plan as a “diabolical scheme.”
The records also document communications between Fredericks and representatives from Total School Solutions in late 2025, before PUSD formally retained the firm. Emails show Fredericks inviting Scott Harden and Yarma Velazquez to meetings with TSS to discuss school consolidation strategies.
In November 2025 emails to TSS, Fredericks referenced criticism of previous school consolidations, writing that PUSD had a “track record in what we do with sites after they’ve been closed,” including leasing or neglecting campuses while generating “very little revenue.” She asked TSS whether it was important to “manage this sentiment during the consolidation study.”
Another email shows Fredericks asking TSS representatives for a “sample resolution” directing Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco to conduct a consolidation study.
Additional correspondence from November 2025 shows Fredericks asking TSS CEO Tahir Ahad and Vice President Joseph Pandolfo for advice on using “friendlier” language when discussing school closures. Pandolfo suggested phrases including “School Closure and Consolidation,” “School Reconfiguration,” and “School Optimization.”
Pandolfo also wrote that emails were “discoverable” and suggested Fredericks “may wish to consider getting [PUSD outside counsel] Sarine involved” regarding communications so they could be kept confidential via the use of attorney-client privilege.
“I think it would be best to not mention our discussions…”
Documents indicate Superintendent Blanco was not informed at the time about the meetings between Board members and TSS. In a December 1, 2025 email to Fredericks, Velazquez, and Harden, Ahad wrote that Blanco had contacted TSS about availability and contracts, adding, “I think it would be best to not mention our discussions to the superintendent and let her own the process.”
The records further show communications among at least four Board members related to deliberations surrounding the December 2025 board resolution initiating the consolidation process.
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Daisy Chain Violation: A Prohibited Serial Meeting Among a Majority of PUSD Board Members
California’s Ralph M. Brown Act prohibits a majority of members of a legislative body from discussing public business outside public meetings through serial communications known as “daisy chain” meetings.
According to the records, Velazquez discussed a proposed school closure resolution with Fredericks, who discussed it with Harden, who then discussed it with Kenne. Text messages between Harden and Kenne reference proposed “friendly amendments” to increase the likelihood the resolution would pass.
On the morning of the vote, Harden wrote to Kenne that there was “a strong likelihood Yarma will make the motion [herself]” and discussed possible amendments. After the vote, Harden wrote that introducing a separate resolution may not have succeeded, and Kenne responded, “So we took the best path possible.”
In another message, Kenne wrote that she received a “tongue lashing from Yarma” and stated, “I’m plotting to close San Raf[ael] because I think locating schools where kids live is important and we tricked her into voting for the resolution so we could make changes to it after the fact.”
Given what these records reveal, a legal challenge could be brought to the school consolidation process, based on the internal deliberations of a majority of the Board, which led to all four of them voting in favor of Board Resolution 2852, and which passed 4-3. This Board resolution formally initiated the consolidation process and directed the Superintendent to retain an independent consultant. Any member of the public could file a complaint with the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Division about this prohibited serial meeting.
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Records Suggest the Process Was Non-Transparent and Biased with a Predetermined Outcome
On January 22, 2026, the PUSD Board approved a contract with TSS valued at more than $230,000. At that meeting, Superintendent Blanco described TSS as an “independent, reliable, unbiased, external” consultant.
The records show TSS had already participated in private, previously undisclosed discussions with Fredericks, Harden, and Velazquez regarding consolidation plans before the contract was approved.
PUSD officials and trustees have continued to publicly describe the process as transparent and unbiased with no “predetermined outcome.” Fredericks has referred to TSS as an “independent expert,” while both Fredericks and Blanco have described the consolidation process as “transparent.”
Following the commencement of the Superintendent’s Consolidation Committee meetings, Fredericks has reportedly refused to meet with her constituents on the grounds that she wants an unbiased process; she has indicated that she will not discuss consolidation until the Committee makes its recommendations. Further, on April 27, 2026, Fredericks stated that the PUSD Board members were asked not to attend Superintendent Consolidation Committee meetings led by TSS to avoid the appearance of influencing the process. Her public statements conflict with her private actions, now that records show that she initiated the school closure process with TSS and strategized with TSS beginning last fall regarding school closure plans that she now appears intent on implementing as Board President in June.
The documents also include an email message from Scott Harden from November 6, 2025 stating he agrees “whole-heartedly” with a suggestion to close Blair and Thurgood Marshall, PUSD’s only 6th -12th grade schools. During the time of the December 2025 vote on Board Resolution 2852, however, Harden texted a concerned Marshall parent that the optimal school size numbers listed in the resolution “are a**” but reassured them that “Marshall is fine.” In later text messages from March of this year, Harden discussed his own research into high school consolidations in California. After conducting numerous searches using the AI platform Claude, Harden wrote to Kenne that it was “hard to find success stories” involving high school consolidations and that most examples involved district mergers or private schools.
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This article was developed with reporting from multiple contributors. This story is developing. Stay with our daily online edition for ongoing reporting.
Of course Tina Fredericks and others are now being accused of Brown Act violations.
I tried to warn people about this a year and a half ago. Instead, I was publicly defamed, pushed out, and so were many Armenian families.
Tina, Kim Kenne, Yarma, and others worked against the Armenian Academy program, even though it was bringing in enrollment and helping Blair. I remember how uncomfortable they seemed whenever I shared good news about students enrolling at Blair. Now it makes sense: they did not want Blair to succeed.
They attacked the very people trying to help the district. They damaged a program that was working. And they pushed away families who cared deeply about the school community.
This district has serious problems with bias, transparency, and accountability. Those who voted for and protected these people are now seeing the consequences of what they supported. I told you so.
Who told you these board members “worked against the American Armenian Program” ?
I ask why you’re saying that they “worked against” the specific words “worked against” what does that mean?
Thank you for your reporting. This is so troubling, and these snippets of conversations make me wish I could read the whole thing. Is there a chance you would release the full records you received? Or longer conversations from which these are drawn?
Thank you for spreading truth. This is outrageous. Enough of the corruption and greed at the expense of our children. Disgusted. I hope the Superintendent clears the whole board, scraps the scam plans, and listens to the parents and kids. All must go!
I don’t believe the Superintendent has any authority over the Board. The Superintendent is underneath the Board. The Board can fire the Superintendent, not the other way around. Voters can potentially recall Board members, but I don’t know how that’s done in Pasadena. Certainly when Board members come up for re-election, you can vote for their opponents. But frankly, everyone who touches this Board, even when they have good intentions going in, seems to come out corrupt eventually. PUSD is a complete disaster. Every neighboring school district (San Marino, La Canada, Arcadia, South Pasadena, etc.) are well-functioning districts despite there being the same private schools in close proximity. This is not a function of wealthy people not enrolling their kids in schools because of their “privilege,” this is more a function that PUSD has put out a poor product offering because of corruption and incompetence by the Board and as a result, anyone with resources opts out. The same problems don’t exist in neighboring school districts. People who can’t afford private desperately try to get out of PUSD to get into any one of those surrounding school districts. This situation is beyond salvage and honestly, the sooner the state steps in and takes autonomy away from these corrupt individuals the better.
Unfortunately, the board are her bosses, not the other way around. She appears to have been completely in the dark, just like the rest of us, to their manipulation.
The superintendent can’t “clear the board” ms. Beltran.
They’re elected seats!!!!
Why do people make statements like this when they lack basic knowledge?!
In my article, recently published by this newspaper, I referenced the lack of transparency and hidden agendas of our school board members. This revelation of the details is worse than what I imagined.
If true, and the details make it appear so, their actions are what corruption looks like.
When the leaders of PUSD appear to be dishonest, unethical, and manipulative the damage it does to our district extends beyond the resulting horrible decisions we have had to endure.
It shows our students that honor, ethics, and character are commodities. Things to be used to gain advantage and then traded to achieve dubious goals.
All the effort we put into teaching students the value of being good people is eroded by these actions.
A very wise person once told me to begin as you intend to go. They have clearly demonstrated they intended to act deceptively from the start. That is how we got to this point.
I hope they find the courage to show true leadership and demonstrate the honor, ethics, and strong character our students, families, and district deserve.
Sincerely disappointed.
SUCH A DISGRACE! SHAME ON YOU, TINA! RECALL TINA FREDERICKS! RECALL SCOTT HARDEN! VOTE OUT KIM KENNE!
I am extremely disappointed in these elected leaders that are supposed to be representing us.
PUSD’s general administration at the district level accounts for about 7% of their budget. The California state average is about 5-6%, with some districts like Rocklin and Irvine Unified are only 3.5%-4%. Let’s find efficiencies at the district office before further traumatizing students.
PUSD already has a lot of unused property that can be used for 99 year land leases to bring in operating budget money from the two prior rounds of closures. Stanford recently found that closing schools does not improve the finances of districts. https://gettingdowntofacts.com/sites/default/files/California%20Schools%20in%20Transition%20Enrollment%20Decline%2C%20Climate%20Pressure%2C%20and%20System%20Capacity.pdf Save our schools!
Definitely a daisy chain violation, but also the records appear to describe a hub-and-spoke serial meeting, which is a separate Brown Act violation. Board President Fredericks served as the hub, individually sharing her consolidation plan with multiple members. More significantly, Total School Solutions appears to have functioned as an intermediary through which board members developed collective concurrence on the consolidation, which the Brown Act expressly prohibits (Gov. Code § 54952.2(b)). The fact that TSS was meeting privately with at least three board members about strategy, while later being presented as an ‘independent’ consultant, suggests TSS was not merely a future vendor but an active conduit for prohibited behind-the-scenes deliberation among a board majority.
We need to recall Tina Fredericks, Scott Harden, Kim Kenne, and Yarma Velasquez. We need to cancel the contract with Total School Solutions/Dr. Pandolfo and/or sue for breach. $233,000 of OUR taxpayer dollars for this farce!
The biggest problem is the election of unqualified leadership. COVID brought in unearned resources that were squandered by a clueless board.
We need a confederacy of principals and one or two full-time executive secretaries to replace the entire PUSD School Board.
This is disgusting. The contract needs to be cancelled for breach. And recall these three board members asap #RecallTinaFredericks #RecallScottHarden #VoteOutKimKenne
Also, why do we allow so many private schools so suck out resources from the public schools that benefit the entire population instead a small group of richie-rich white people?
Lets not make it about race please. Some of those bougie private schools are majority Asian too. The rich folks are the issue for sure, but please don’t make it about race.
Yes – private schools should pay for each student they poach from PUSD.
WE’RE not “allowing” these charters to be here…. LACOE is.
The district says to them “sorry but NO” and the go around the district to ask the
Los Angeles County Office of Education and they grant them their existence here.
We can lean on LACOE to disuade them but it’s Kathryn Barger our county supervisor who places those on the LACOE Board.
Get in Kathryn Bargers head to begin that change.
Stop the emerging charters at their core.
Appoint “Pro-Public Education” board members and there,…. done deal!
Kathryn Barger should hear from you if you beleive that charters shouldn’t inundate Pasadena, Altadena.
stop the government attacks to public Ed!
Power to the people and all that good stuff.
God bless PUSD and our beautiful Crown City.
Why do they hate Blair and Marshall so much? My kid goes to Marshall. It’s a great school.
Why are the administrators not doing their job and finding more money for the schools? Our kids are an investment not a cost sink.
Also, Tina Fredericks ran for school board on a platform of *not* closing schools. I feel betrayed.
Thank you to everyone who put time into making this incredible reporting possible.
This is what we get from lack of leadership from the top. We need to close schools. It must be done, for PUSD to survive. But, what we needed was that decision to be made from the district leadership and the board! Waste of financial resources and time. Sounds like they should scrap this boondoggle and have the boondoggle make a decision.
💯💯💯💯
Nury Arr: school closures will not “save” money. If that were the case, where’s the “saved” money from the last round of school closures in 2019??
I understand parents’ concerns regarding school closures and totally agree with your comment re: lack of leadership at the top!!! It is now painfully obvious that changes should have been made years ago and “top” positions consolidated and /or eliminated. Now it is a dire situation with few alternatives. Closing schools (as has been done in many surrounding districts) saves $ on the daily/monthly/yearly operational budget required to operate each school. Once schools are closed properties can be leased or sold. I sympathize with the parents but I am not hearing alternatives for a school district that is broke.
Thank you for this in depth reporting. This is shocking and deeply troubling. The Board represents US and they need to be transparent and accountable to the community they serve.
How did we become a country where public school closures are discussed in terms of schools being “a prime real estate location — ideal for additional housing”?
The president of a school board asking a consulting firm to use “friendlier” language around school closures, and communicating with them before they were even hired by Pasadena Unified School District? We cannot become numb to this.
Thank you for this impressive reporting and for documenting the details so carefully.