Guest Opinion | Scott Harden: PUSD’s Future Begins Now

Today, Pasadena Unified’s educational future begins. The promises made, the visions cast and the challenges ahead lay the foundation for a PUSD of tomorrow. The voters have decided who they entrust to deliver that future.

Those chosen to take a seat upon the dais at 351 South Hudson are the authors of the next chapter of education for Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre. They’re the co-facilitators for a new horizon. We’ve started this decade with a challenging beginning, but global viruses do not define us, or what we are capable of. It certainly won’t define our children, not for long anyway.

In service of the educational story we write, as mothers, fathers, guardians, teachers, District administrators, residents, neighbors, immigrants, employees, business owners, pastors and children, let’s plant a firm flag and say that we stand for a PUSD that becomes a signature district of equity, inclusion and opportunity.

To that call for action, I offer this prayer:

Let us realize that the true work of education design, advocacy and governance isn’t really about what happens in the boardroom, but rather closest to those who are affected by its impact.

Let’s light our path forward, not from the dark corners of our personal whims. The light should come from the church social. From the neighborhood coffee shop. From a civic organization meeting. From a youth center retreat. In classrooms, workshops, idea sessions and interactive forums, where a business owner could sit next to a person who works three jobs to provide for his children, extend his hands and say “Good to meet you, neighbor. Let me tell you about how your idea could work, and how I’d like to help”.

Let’s damn the persistent systems of racism, mistreatment, and injustice and design new culturally responsive systems in hand with district and community leaders who have walked the road of intolerance and inequity. Let cries for help, justice or mediation be treated with the dignity of respect of a culture of equal treatment under the law.

Let’s possess the wisdom to see educational opportunity, not as something precious to hoard and exclude from others, but something that can be spread to the far corners of our district. Let’s demand that others have what we’ve been given and they don’t have to be “lucky” or at the right place and right time to get it.

Let’s stand for liberating our students from convenient geography and build a new transportation paradigm to help students access programs across our district. Let’s move away from a traditional “school bus” model but perhaps toward something shared by multiple agencies, with safe pathways to school opportunities wherever they occur, especially if they aren’t down the street.

Let’s admit that no bold plans or ambitions have to be fully polished before they start, but rather made better, continuously, through continual cycles of evaluation, testing, listening, sketching, understanding, empathizing, and refining. If we have the courage to learn and evaluate success more frequently, we will have an inclusive district where we honor our educational leaders as partners, colleagues, compatriots for continuous improvement, rather that those we unfairly burden to “figure it all out”.

Let’s expand the notion of neighborhood schools to those of “opportunity schools”, places where socio-economic diversity is maintained and managed by weighted-access programs based on greatest need.

Let’s ensure that the first question we ask every prospective family is “what kind of child do you have and how can we realize her true potential?”

Let’s learn from what has worked during this pandemic and reinvent how virtual education can supplement our physical teaching process. How can we make attending school more universally accessible through digital solutions, rather than simply cursing the tools as exclusive of a full-school experience?

These are big ideals but they are not out of our reach. The PUSD Board of Education has the power to be the voice of the future. We hold the power to let our community dream, then align those dreams and converge them into real common purpose, so that when we have to make hard and impactful choices, or turn the heavy levers of government to enable them, we know the shared horizon we’re struggling to reach.

Let’s abolish our battle lines to carve out a new unity, and market our new visions so that those who consider PUSD can see the pathways of opportunity in front of their children.

Our future can be what we want it to, despite the system telling us what it is. Quality public education in America would seem to be a foregone conclusion but it’s far from it. There are real systemic barriers in place to keep that from happening, preventing full investment in the very place where America is made: the classroom.

What chapter would you write next?

Let’s hear your story, and the story of your neighbor, and see where those dreams intersect. At the intersection is where we have the chance to make change real.

From a sheer numbers perspective, most of our community don’t have a child enrolled in public school. These temples of learning down the block may seem distant, but what happens at those public schools is closer to you than you think. They make your streets safer, your homes worth more, your reputation as a community stronger, and they pay dividends in ways you can’t predict. 

And so, here we are, on the first page of what I hope is a new, stronger, more equitable, more inclusive PUSD. My prayer is for those who have the opportunity to make a difference, use this time as if our children’s lives depended on it. Because they do.

Scott Harden is a former candidate for the Board of Education, a parent leader and a public school advocate.