Pasadena Unified Board of Education Meets Tonight, Works Through Wide-Ranging Agenda

Adult education students in the Pasadena area will soon find it easier to obtain a high school diploma and eventually transition into post-secondary education or the workforce, with the help of two diploma options that the Pasadena Unified School District is considering.

The PUSD Board of Education will consider a recommendation to implement the two adult education high school diploma options, when it meets Thursday, November 17.

PUSD drafted the recommendation in response to a need to establish academic requirements before Pasadena’s Twilight Adult School could issue high school diplomas to its students.

As a member of the Pasadena Area Consortium, PUSD is required to collaborate with other local educational services and the Pasadena City College to make it easier for adults to continue on to college or enter the workforce, after obtaining a high school diploma.

The two diploma options will be explained at the PUSD school board meeting.

The Board of Education will also act on several facilities-improvement proposals for PUSD schools, including a proposal to purchase a temporary relocatable staff and student restroom at Pasadena High School and install it on site before a renovation project on the school’s gym and locker could begin. PUSD is recommending a 12 feet x 40 feet relocatable restroom, costing about $73,466, to be installed.

The restroom, as intended, can be moved from one PUSD site to another as the district pursues its modernization program for all its schools.

Other items in the agenda for Thursday’s meeting include board action on a number of purchase orders and contracts for projects in some of PUSD’s school sites, and new contracts for management personnel at PUSD led by Superintendent Brian McDonald and Associate Superintendent Mercy Santoro.

The contracts for the senior officials reflect a six percent increase in their salaries, increases that have been given by the Board of Education to other certificated and classified management employees over the last six months but have not been extended to McDonald and Santoro, and four other officers: Chief Academic Officer Shawn Bird, Chief Human Resources Officer Kathleen Sanchez, Chief Business Officer Bernadette Riggs and Chief of Facilities Nelson Cayabyab.

Factoring in the increases, McDonald will have a basic annual salary of $265,000; Santoro, $183,380; Sanchez, $189,967.90; Bird, $189,967.90; Riggs, $189,967.90; and Cayabyab, $190,800.

According to the proposed contract, McDonald’s term ends on June 30, 2020. All the other contracts are effective up to June 30, 2018.

The Board of Education meeting starts at 4 p.m. at the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room, PUSD, 351 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena.