GUEST OPINION
PUSD students protesting school consolidation (Photos – Darcy Naganuma)
The PUSD School Consolidation Committee held its penultimate meeting on Monday, April 27. Committee recommendations on school closures will be made on May 11. The PUSD Board will make any final decision on whether or not to close schools.
By Warren Bleeker
This process has been flawed from the start, led by Total School Solutions (TSS), which has presented inconsistent and inaccurate data. Board Trustee Kim Kenne, a pro-closure politician with her own agenda, openly meddles in the proceedings. Frustrated Committee members attempt to make sense of it all. Recommendations coming out of this process should be seriously questioned by the PUSD Board.
The Faulty “Doom and Gloom” Premise
It is true that public school enrollment has decreased, and the District has faced financial challenges. Yet continued “doom and gloom” lectures from Trustees Kim Kenne and Scott Harden are overblown. The District now has a balanced budget, received a positive financial certification from the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), and has a robust influx of bond funding. PUSD Facilities Coordinator Mike Dunning confirmed at the April 23, 2026 Board Meeting that the District has sufficient funds for all the facilities upgrades planned by the District, and the District is finally starting to monetize its many unused properties. New affordable housing projects are popping up all over Pasadena. Altadena’s rebuild appears to include the addition of many new young families. Even committee members appear to be asking themselves: why are we here?
TSS and Consultant Pandolfo Are Out Of Their Depth
PUSD spent approximately $233,000 to hire TSS as the outside consultant to assist the PUSD School Consolidation Committee. The Executive Vice President of Total School Solutions, Dr. Joseph Pandolfo, leads the consolidation meetings and has become less effective in addressing the committee’s questions and data issues over time.
At the April 27 meeting, four months into this process, Pandolfo was forced to concede that his projected “cost savings” for each proposed school closure were inaccurate and overstated. Pandolfo appears to have used the wrong data for his cost savings analysis. He failed to take into account the upcoming budget cuts passed by the PUSD Board last November—before this process began.
Pandolfo either presented misleading or incorrect data to the Committee to take credit for budget cuts already approved, or he is unable to understand PUSD’s budget. Either way, TSS and Pandolfo are not up to this task. It took a Committee member to point this out. No one from the District or TSS appears to have flagged the error at the time. With only one meeting left, the Committee has no idea whether closing schools will save the District money or cost the District more money, as have 11 past school closures. Pandolfo appears to be grasping at straws to identify any purported cost savings from his nonsensical school closure proposals.
Pandolfo’s proposed school closure plans have been met with significant skepticism by the Committee. Pandolfo proposes closing Norma Coombs and moving those students to Webster. Again, it again took a Committee member (who supports closing schools) to point out that under such a plan, the Norma Coombs students would be at Webster for only one year. After that year, they would have to move to a completely different (as yet unnamed) school for planned renovations to Webster. Students would then move a third time in three years back to Webster. Is it sound to require elementary students to switch schools three times in three years. Are there cost savings?
Pandolfo proposes closing Blair and gutting Thurgood Marshall Secondary School. This requires 9th through 12th graders and many 6th-8th graders to find a new school, destroying the 6–12 grade model, squandering tens of millions of dollars in recent upgrades at Blair, and gutting Marshall, the District’s largest, most cost-efficient school. Will harming students save the District money? No. Pandolfo proposes breaking apart two already consolidated schools, which will cost the District substantially more money and would leave the remaining middle school at Marshall with fewer electives, teachers, and opportunities at a higher overall cost.
When a skeptical committee member asked why Pandolfo would want to eliminate the academically beneficial 6–12 model that attracts many families to PUSD, Pandolfo baldly asserted there are “mixed results” for 6–12 schools. This statement is not supported by any academic research, and he offered no support for his claim.
Real-World Impact of School Closures
Pandolfo is not an unbiased consultant. He steers the Committee to adopt his proposals. In doing so, he dismisses the substantial academic literature that consistently shows that closing schools, especially middle and high schools, causes lasting harm, particularly to underserved students. Closures lead to lower attendance, lower test scores, and lower graduation rates than those not subject to school closures. See Education Week, “The Harm of School Closures Can Last a Lifetime, New Research Shows” by Libby Stanford, dated June 18, 2024. Pandolfo asks the Committee to ignore the research. He makes pollyannaish predictions of the supposed benefits of school closures without underlying data to support his claims. This is the opposite of unbiased.
Trustee Kim Kenne and Committee Member Victoria Knapp Undermine the Integrity of the Process
Pandolfo requested that Board Trustees not attend the consolidation meetings, as their presence could influence, or create the appearance of influencing, the supposedly non-biased Committee members.
Trustee Kim Kenne has continued to interfere with the Committee from the outset. She has attended most, if not all, meetings. She openly converses with Pandolfo during sessions and continues to attempt to influence Committee members, even after Board President Tina Fredericks again explained to the Committee, prior to the April 27 meeting, that Board members should not attend the Committee meetings.
Despite Superintendent Dr. Blanco’s promise to include only non-biased members, Committee Member Knapp displays a strong predisposition toward closing schools. Knapp has written emails to her neighbors via a neighborhood group, echoing Kim Kenne’s ‘doom and gloom’ message and scolding community members for fighting to keep public schools open.
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes
The majority of the Committee members appear to be working hard, acting in good faith, and are visibly frustrated with the process.
This entire process was unnecessary. The District made the necessary financial cuts back in November to balance the budget, without needing to close schools. TSS and Pandolfo have offered nonsensical closure options, have not been able to provide clear, verifiable cost-saving data, have presented inaccurate and misleading data, and/or simply do not understand the District’s budget.
The PUSD Board should carefully scrutinize—and ultimately reject—any recommendations to close schools resulting from this highly flawed and biased process.
The Opinion section reflects the opinions of the responsible contributor(s)/writer(s) only, and do not reflect the viewpoint of ColoradoBoulevard.net. ColoradoBoulevard.net does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. ColoradoBoulevard.net accepts no obligation to review every posting, but reserves the right (with no obligation) to delete comments and postings that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate.
Leave a Reply