What’s Happening at Pasadena Unified

GUEST OPINION

Pasadena Unified Board Meeting, June 15, 2023 (Photo Staff)

PUSD has been without a chief business officer for two months since Dr. Leslie Barnes resigned abruptly in April. Her departure was reportedly because of micromanagement by one board member, Kim Kenne.

By Adrienne Ann Mullen

On Thursday, June 22, the PUSD Board will consider hiring as interim chief business officer a longtime district business manager who worked under Dr. Barnes, Kingsley Udo.

There may be difficulty in conducting a normal search for a replacement for Dr. Barnes because of the actions of the president of the PUSD teachers union, Jonathan Gardner. During PUSD’s recent hiring of a chief human resources officer, Gardner wrote an op-ed in a local paper advocating for a different candidate for the position. Mr. Gardner ignored the well-established role PUSD senior management has in making such choices and in doing so, according to PUSD sources, he violated the confidentiality of the interview process in which he participated.

PUSD Board Member Tina Fredericks appeared to repeat Gardner’s words in a public PUSD Board meeting (see her comments at time of meeting 7:19:15) when discussing the hiring of the new chief human resources officer.

The search firm that ran that interview process for PUSD has reportedly politely declined the job of managing the search for a chief business officer because of this breach of confidentiality.

All of this has been occurring during the PUSD Board’s pushing out of Superintendent Brian McDonald, whose last day is June 30. To date, the Board has not named anyone to lead PUSD beginning July 1.

 Dr. Adrienne Ann Mullen is a former PUSD Board of Education Member.

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