Longtime Pasadena School Board Member Patrick Cahalan Won’t Seek Reelection

Patrick Cahalan, a member of the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education for more than eight and a half years, announced Friday he will not seek reelection in 2024. 

“I’ve always strongly believed that the PUSD Board of Education operates best when a majority of the members are those that have children actively in the district,” he said in a statement. 

Cahalan said his youngest child will be graduating from PUSD at the end of this academic year.

Cahalan has served PUSD since May 4, 2015, for slightly more than two regular four-year terms. During his tenure, Cahalan has been an strong advocate for public education. 

In his announcement, Cahalan expressed gratitude to his fellow Board Members, teachers and principals, Patrick Conyers, Executive Director of PEF, and Nancy Dufford, Executive Director at PEN,  and a “dictionary’s worth of other parents and friends.”

“I’d like to thank everyone who has participated in supporting the role of public education in California, and specifically in our district, during my tenure,” he said. “I include Board Members past and present, District administrative staff, our labor partners, and the rank and file staff. Most especially, I would like to thank our teachers and principals, who have done an excellent job of preparing my own two children for their lifelong journey of learning.” 

Cahalan also thanked everyone who joined their PTA unit, served as a PTA board member at a site, or served on the PTA Council or on PTA’s First District. 

Special thanks, he said, goes to his family: his wife and their two children. 

“Final and most important thanks to Kitty Cahalan, who has done plenty of volunteer work and PUSD advocacy herself,” Cahalan said. “She somehow managed to survive the single most unrewarding job in American politics: the spousal unit of a sitting official.” 

Cahalan has resided in Pasadena since 2001. He has an extensive background in education and technology. He served as the Director of Curriculum and Technology at Loyola High School for four years in the 1990s. 

Since 2002, he has been with Caltech, where he currently holds the position of Manager of Technical Operations for the Computational and Mathematical Sciences Department.

Cahalan’s service includes a stint on the Longfellow Elementary School Site Council from 2012 until his election to the PUSD Board, where he served as Chair in his final year. He also contributed at the district level as a member of the District Advisory Council from 2012-2015, holding positions as Assistant Secretary, Secretary, and Vice Chair.

In addition to his work in education, Cahalan has been active in his local community. He served on the Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association Board and chaired the Emergency Preparedness Committee.