What Happened at the Pasadena Unified Board Meeting?

Pasadena Unified Board Meeting on August 27, 2020

Here’s what happened at the Pasadena Unified Board Meeting on August 27, 2020, at 3:00 pm.

By Albert Martin

Measure TT

Measure TT had a bond authorization of $350 million dollars in 2008, to start for the repair and upgrade of aging and deteriorating campuses. There is currently $1, 579, 896 available for projects from Measure TT. $1,099,620 of this amount is from the Pasadena High School (PHS) Identity Project. The Board may wish to reduce scope of project and use some of the funds to turn it into a landscaping project. Board Member, Kim Kenne expressed that the “parents, teachers and staff at PHS may need to manage their expectations with this project and hopes that this would be communicated to all stakeholders.”

Measure O

The District’s new bond measure is Measure O. Measure O will include a short term $60 million-dollar educational technology bond coupled with a long term $456 million facilities bond. Documents have been filed with the County. There is a Resolution calling for election on November 3, 2020. PUSD is preparing an argument in favor of Measure O and well as a rebuttal to those against Measure O.

Solar Project

Twelve solar sites are in various stages of construction. The sites are Altadena ES, Eliot MS, Field ES, Hamilton ES, John Muir HS, Jackson ES, Madison ES, Pasadena HS, Sierra Madre ES, Sierra Madre MS, Webster ES, and Willard ES. The Solar Project was originally larger and included more sites. This is a scaled back version of the solar project. See the attached Status Report here:

https://pusd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=15&event_id=406&meta_id=118709

Technology update

Due to Covid-19 and the need to move to a remote learning environment, the Innovative Technology Services department has received a high volume of technology ticket requests from PUSD staff, students and parents. In order for staff to be able to respond to these requests in a timely manner, the Innovative Technology Services team will require additional support.  Currently one Server Administrator, two Help Desk Technicians, and one Computer Telecommunications Repair Lead service the high volume of technology ticket requests, device repairs, hot spot requests, password resets, device requests, Chromebook deliveries, and much more.

The PUSD Board approved a contract with the Kanaval Group for professional resourcing. The Kanaval Group will provide technical resources to PUSD including Tier 1 and 2 Helpdesk support engineers, warehouse technicians and Solutions Architects from August 2020 through November 2020. PUSD staff will continue to track unique costs and expenditures related to Covid-19. The anticipated cost for the staff augmentation of the Kanaval Group Master Services Agreement is $140,700.00.

> Watch the full PUSD Board Meeting on August 27, 2020 below: