Pasadena School Officials Ecstatic About Passage of Measure O

Pasadena Unified School District officials were ecstatic after voters passed a $500 million bond measure that they say will provide better learning environments for students in upgraded facilities.

Measure O – which was endorsed by the City Council but opposed by the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and some other area business groups – is expected to generate some $60 million to upgrade the PUSD’s computers and other educational technology. In addition, $456,280,000 will go to upgrading aging district facilities.

The bond will cost local property owners between $45 and $60 a year on their property taxes for each $100,000 of assessed value.

Measure O appeared on the ballot as the “Pasadena Unified School District Repair, Technology, Student Achievement Measure.”

“According to early results of the election on Nov. 3, Measure O has been approved by voters. This ensures that Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) students have increased access to technology, expanded STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) courses, and we can make vital improvements to school facilities. The results will be certified in December,”  said Superintendent Brian McDonald.

“This is great news for our students, families, and faculty and staff, and we thank the Pasadena community for their continued investment in our schools,” McDonald said. “Pasadena Unified has demonstrated that our schools are a cornerstone of our community and that residents embrace our students and schools. We are grateful to countless community supporters for their trust and belief in this great school district.”

Critics of the bond measure said they disagreed with raising property taxes during a pandemic that has left many people unemployed. Others pointed to the recent closure of schools that were rehabilitated in the past with bond measures.

Local taxpayers are still paying for the $350 million in bond funds provided by Measure TT, which won’t be off the books until 2037. The debt on $240 million Measure Y, which passed in 1997, has been paid.

“I think the key thing with Measure O is not just that it’s the worst possible time to ask people to raise their taxes by a record amount,” said former Pasadena City College Trustee Ross Selvidge. “It’s a time when they need to look at other things that are going on in PUSD. They’ve already spent $650 million in the last 20 years on facilities and 600 million from bonds. Fifty million or so I think was from matching funds from the state.”

PUSD Board of Education member Scott Phelps said people “saw through” the opposition from people like Selvidge, local realtors and the Chamber of Commerce

“People looked at that and they said, ‘But this is all for the school children.’ It’s very simple. It’s not a complicated analysis,” Phelps said.

Last November, PUSD Chief Facilities Officer Nelson Cayabyan said 91 percent of the district’s schools were built 50 or more years ago.

“We still have the same electrical system,” Cayabyan said. “We still have the same asbestos ceilings. You can’t teach 21st-century learning if asbestos tile is falling on top of your head. We have to turn the culture around so the facilities stay ahead of all of the great programs you need to bring on board.” 

“It’s a lot of money, but it’s still not enough money,” said PUSD Board of Education member Michelle Richardson Bailey. 

“Think about having to renovate, 10, 15, 20 facilities. These facilities are very old facilities. Some of them were built back in the 1920s and the infrastructure has not ever been updated or upgraded. And so we have concrete steps that are crumbling. We have cafeterias that are outdated. They look like 18th-century cafeterias,” she said. “So I’m excited. This is a win for our students, our students and our faculty and staff deserve to report to facilities on a daily basis that are modern and updated to the 21st century.”