Michelle Richardson Bailey Announces Candidacy for Board of Education

In a press release, Bailey says her primary focus is “ensuring equity in education.”

“It is a fact that the make-up of our current school board does not reflect the diverse
student population of our school community,” Bailey wrote, continuing to say she believes in order for the Board of Education to be successful “at effectively addressing the educational needs of every student, it is important, that it be comprised of members who represent diverse perspectives, reflective of the student population it serves.”

Bailey describes herself as having a passion for educating youth and believing that Pasadena has the potential to be a trendsetter by making education a top priority.

“I am a forward thinker who puts children first,” she said.

Bailey has been a classified educator for 20 years, five of them in classified management. She is a 14-year employee of Pasadena Unified and currently serves on the PUSD Customer Experience Advisory Group, the School Site Council at Blair school and the AD41 Education Advisory Committee.

Bailey said she founded the Superintendent’s Advisory Council, now the Classified Advisory Council, and served formerly on the PUSD LCAP Committee, representing classified employees and the PUSD AB 86 Committee (Adult Education Consortium Program) in support of Adult Education.

Her career working for PUSD began after she served as the Administrative Assistant to the County Board of Education in Alameda County. Prior to that, she was Administrative Secretary to the Associate Superintendents of Curriculum and Instruction and Student Programs and Support.

Bailey grew up in Pasadena and is a product of PUSD. She has been married for 25 years and has three children who also attended PUSD schools, and have gone on to college.

Bailey has volunteered in the community since she was 17 and has served on the boards of several non-profits advocating for youth and young adults. She has also served on two Pasadena Commissions for the past 13 years: the Human Relations Commission where she advised the youth component of the commission, and the Northwest Commission.

She applauds PUSD’s marketing and branding efforts to improve its image, but believes that “there is also an immediate need for affordable housing for families with school age children. In addition, she says more options are needed to attract families back to PUSD who have been part of the mass exodus.”

“I envision a community where the education of its children comes first,” Bailey says.