Outside a Protest as Inside, Pasadena Unified Teachers Gather for School Year Kick Off Rally

Pasadena Unified’s school year kick off rally early Wednesday was tempered by demonstrators  leafletting the throng of arriving teachers and administrators to demand the removal of a principal at the center of a long-simmering protest effort.

About 30 protesters from a neighborhood organization called Community Committee for Equality and Justice at Madison (CCEJAM) reportedly distributed approximately 900 copies of a leaflet called “Madison story” in front of the Pasadena High School auditorium.

The document is aimed at prompting the removal of Principal Juan Ruelas from Madison Elementary School.

“It was a peaceful yet successful protest. Very few PUSD employees declined to take a copy,” one protester said in an email following the action. “Many were already familiar with the Madison battle and voiced their support.”

Superintendent McDonald and several Board of Education members reportedly walked by the protest without commenting.

McDonald looked “surprised” by the early morning reception, the protester said.

At issue is Ruelas’s administration and management style at the school, which has seen a number of parent complaints and teacher resignations and transfer requests.

Ruelas was appointed to the position by Superintendent Brian McDonald in May, 2015. Some parents and teachers began to complain about Ruelas almost immediately after he arrived at the school, a series of mounting protests ensued and a neighborhood organization was formed to influence Pasadena Unified to remove Ruelas.

That organization, called the Community Committee for Equality and Justice at Madison (CCEJAM), presented the Pasadena Board of Education with two petitions demanding Ruelas’s ouster. One petition was signed by the parents of 194 Madison Elementary School students, and the other was signed by 346 community members.

The CCEJAM protesters have held numerous demonstrations and rallied at Board of Education events and official meetings over the course of the last year.

There is no known private group supporting Ruelas, but individual parents have written Pasadena Now to praise him.

Associate Superintendent Mercy Santoro confirmed in late July that Ruelas is currently slated to return as Principal of Madison for the upcoming school year.