(File Photos – Jefferson School Campus Open House, City of Pasadena)
At its February 1st, 2024 meeting, the Pasadena Unified Board voted 4-3 to amend a staff recommendation for temporary housing of Longfellow school beginning in the fall of 2025. The Board voted to place it at the former Jefferson school site instead of at the former Allendale school site as staff had recommended.
By News Desk
The Board’s vote was in response to the vocal objections of parents of Longfellow students. The board members seemed unprepared for such a decision; a board member initially asked to be passed over in the normal roll call of voting before casting the last, deciding vote.
Legal Reason for Thursday’s Agenda Item
Thursday evening’s board report states that the operation by the city of the library branch, police Explorers program, firefighters training academy and pickleball courts at the Jefferson site is why in the board’s previous action they included an amendment staff to terminate the agreement with the city, called a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU.
Since the agreement with the city was not on the February 1st meeting agenda, board counsel has advised that the school board must now take formal action to terminate that agreement. The principles of the Brown Act require that an action that the board is taking must be agendized so that the public has a chance to weigh in before formal action is taken. The termination of the MOU is thus on this Thursday, March 14’s agenda for formal action. The board report lists mid-December of this year as the latest date that the city could operate the site. The district would need access to Jefferson to prepare the site for Longfellow’s move in the fall of 2025. The report states that it may be possible for the city to continue offering library services if PUSD makes some space adjustments.
Backup plan
It is not certain that the school board will follow through with termination of the agreement with the city. With the consequent loss of $100,000 in annual income to PUSD, and the loss to the community of the many programs in operation by the city at the Jefferson site, staff has prepared a separate conditional agenda item on which the board would only take formal action if the board fails to formally sever the agreement with the city. This conditional item would direct staff to prepare the Allendale school site for occupation by Longfellow. This was the staff recommendation that the board voted to change at its February 1st meeting.
Related Board Discussion on Moving the District Central Office
A discussion is agendized for the board to give input and possibly direct staff to research and bring back recommendations on:
1) should the district administrative offices currently at the Education Center at 351 S. Hudson Avenue be moved to the Jefferson site, and 2) should that move take place in 2028 or a later date.
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