City Council, Pasadena Unified Board Meet: Mermell Named Interim City Manager, Madison Elementary Still Inflames

[Updated Tuesday, February 9, 2016 | 2:45 p.m.] Plans and planning took center stage at the yearly joint meeting of the Pasadena Unified School District and the Pasadena City Council Monday evening at City Hall.

The meeting went on until almost midnight. The bulk of the evening in the crowded chamber was taken up with school board issues, and the bulk of that was taken up by presentations focused on Collaborate Pasadena and a proposed city-wide Youth Master Plan.

Complaints about Madison Elementary School principal Juan Ruelas and his leadership at the school dominated the public comments portion of the joint meeting. Ruelas, who was appointed by Superintendent Brian McDonald in the spring, has been the subject of a host of complaints since September. Complaints about him were also heard at the close of the school board agenda, as well.

First, however, the City Council in separate session approved the selection of assistant City Manager Steve Mermell to the position of Acting City Manager to replace departing City Manager Michael Beck, who has served in the position since 2008. Beck will be assuming a new position at UCLA. Mermell’s selection is effectively immediately.

The Council further agreed to contract with a executive recruiting firm to begin a nationwide search for a new full-time city manager.

Councilmember John Kennedy bemoaned the lack of current City Manager candidates and took issue with the budgeted cost of the search, saying that the allotted $35,000 was “not nearly enough for a nationwide search.” Mayor Terry Tornek said he had “absolute confidence” in the search and its budget.

The joint session with the Pasadena Unified Board began with a presentation by coordinators Lila Girguis, director of the Magnolia Community Initiative, and Brian Biery.

Girguis and Biery walked both the Board and the Council through a new brochure from Collaborate Pasadena, a cooperative effort sponsored by a host of local sources, including cities, schools, students, parents, and faith-based groups. Collaborate Pasadena’s core mission is to reach educational goals for younger school children, in particular third and fourth graders, in order to develop a strong learning foundations.

The group’s immediate goal is to improve third grade reading scores.

“We teach our children to play nice in the sandbox, and we hope they that carry this into their adult lives,” said Mary Donnelly-Crocker of Young & Healthy, a children’s health care advocacy group. She cited the new collaborative Peoria Place early education project as an example, citing its combination of “public public-private” collaborations. The center would utilize local libraries, the city health departmetn, local restaurants, parental education, as well as its own vegetable garden.

Said Donnelly-Crocker, “We’re using existing resources to connect to big goals.”

Collaborate Pasadena also includes new programs like dual enrollment at both Pasadena High School and Pasadena City College beginning in ninth grade to ease the transition to college, explained program coordinator Linda Machito. The program currently has five classes in progress.

Biery and Girgius led a discussion into an update on the ongoing proposed Youth Master Plan, devised by PUSD students to help policymakers identify the needs of Pasadena youth and develop a plan for accommodating them. Born in 2004, the plan finally took fruition in 2013 when a multi-disciplinary group from local organizations and schools created a survey that would begin to form the development of Pasadena’s Youth Master Plan.

According to the presentation, the Youth survey was “intended to serve as a resource to help to develop effective planning for the youth, and to address protective and risk factors and identify gaps in services.”

And according to Biery, when the plan was being developed, and initial survey found that only 21% of Pasadena youth felt that “adults cared about them.”

More than a score of students either advocated for,or explained to the Board and the Council the six priority areas of the Plan:

• Access to healthy food
• Being “Life Ready”
• Feeling ‘Free to be Me”
• United Youth Support
• Buses and Bikes
• Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco

As student Brisa Garcia explained, students deserve access to healthy food, and a strategy for developing more nutritious and appealing food should be developed.

Student Deja Rice then outlined the importance of creating internships and paid jobs, creating opportunities in the arts industries, as well as teaching students how to set realistic goals.

A safe, harassment-free environment was the goal student Adam Smith described. As one who had struggled with the issue of suicide, Smith pointed out that even the description of “bullying” had a “kid-like” tinge to it, and perhaps should be more accurately described as “harassment,” as it is with adults. “Then people would take it more seriously,” he explained.

Student Jonathan Lu spoke on the subject of support for youth, which would include support not only from other youth, but from parents, as well as academic support, with more teaching assistants in local schools. “We need more youth connectivity to really create a safe environment,” he said.

The need for bus and bicycle safety, free bus admission for students, youth rides, bicycle support including more racks and repair stations and access to helmets were also detailed by students Maria Benn and Kim Allen

Student Nicholas Gersh, also speaking on the subject of harassment, added, “I have a bicycle. There are rules and plans for bikes. Why is there no plans for me, the owner of said bicycle?”

A number of involved community members also urged the council to adopt the Plan, but as Mayor Tornek explained, “You’ve raised great points here, and opened our eyes to a number of issues, but as you know, there is nothing we can actually do in terms of acting on this. What would we do? What do you want?”

Biery responded, “Plans like these become more real when bodies like yours get involved.” He also pointed out that several US cities have mandated youth master plans in their own plans—Richmond, Virginia, for example. But in the absence of a mandate to enact, the council agreed to follow the progress of the plan and encourage it as they are able, but take no formal action.

The Pasadena School Board’s ongoing five-year Master Plan was once again updated by Associate Superintendent Mercy Santoro, who explained in her presentation that the Plan, which is currently in a survey phase, consisted of “vigorous visioning, data collection, and a blueprint to guide program development and facility investments.”

Essentially, said Santoro, the educational master plan is an educational plan which would then drive the facilities plan.

“We need to make certain that instruction drives construction,” said Santoro.

A draft report of the plan will be presented at the end of this month, and the final plan will be voted on in June. Construction, which would utilize $100 million in bond funds through Measure TT, would, if approved, began this summer.

Pasadena Housing Director Bill Huang then detailed for the board and council a plan that would utilize existing PUSD properties as housing opportunities, both for school personnel as well as community members. Several community speakers spoke in favor of the plan, though there was a definite divide between those who saw it as a plan for home ownership and those who saw it as a plan to make more rental properties available.

While Superintendent McDonald saw the plan as an opportunity for teachers to live where they work, one teacher noted, “Yes, but who wants to live with their employer?,” as School Board President Elizabeth Pomroy nodded.

“This works with college housing, not high schools,” said another.

Again, the plan was only a presentation, and no action was taken.

Finally, Madison Elementary teacher Patricia Guzman, currently embroiled in a dispute with Madison Principal Juan Ruelas, and on administrative leave from the district, asked the Council to find a way to intervene in the matter, as the joint meeting with Pasadena Unfied Board Members closed and the Council resumed public comment.