Pasadena School Board Set to Take Up Superintendent Emergency Powers, COVID Testing, and Labor Union Pacts on Thursday

The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Board of Education will take up 11 action items Thursday when it meets in-person at the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room at the PUSD Education Center on Thursday.

Among these items are several COVID-19 related issues, including vaccination and testing plans, and a number of labor-related issues as well.

In one action item, the Board of Education is set to vote on authorizing PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald to “declare the necessity to move the district from in-person instruction to remote instruction” at any time needed to respond to prevailing health conditions.

A draft resolution to this effect is expected to be passed Thursday, which would also authorize the superintendent to take any action necessary to ensure the continuation of public education and the health and safety of PUSD students and staff at the district sites.

These actions may include relocating students and staff, continuing daily student transportation, providing alternative educational program options, and directing staff to serve as disaster service workers or to make alterations, repairs or improvements to school property.

The resolution will also give the superintendent a free hand in deciding to utilize any funding from the one-time coronavirus aid program, without requiring specific authorization from the Board.

The Board is also scheduled to act on a recommendation by PUSD staff to ratify and approve the PUSD COVID-19 Testing Plan, part of the District’s strategy for keeping our students and staff safe in the midst of the pandemic.

“By providing testing to employees and students we will be able to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and prevent outbreaks that could trigger classroom closures, allowing students to remain at the school sites for in-person learning,” PUSD said in the recommendation.

Under the Testing Plan, PUSD will provide multiple opportunities for COVID-19 testing, including five types of testing – screening, surveillance, symptomatic, response, and outbreak – for students and staff. Screening and surveillance testing will be made available to any student or employee either on campuses or at PUSD’s Primary Health Clinic.

Once ratified, the Testing Plan will require all unvaccinated employees to be tested weekly in accordance with the State Public Health Order of August 11, 2021. All students in the elementary grades and children under 12 years of age, with informed consent from parents, will be tested weekly.

Unvaccinated student-athletes, band members, and ROTC participants will be required to take weekly tests, with informed parent or guardian consent, and a negative test result is required to participate.

“This strategy captures students most at-risk of transmission because of the activities involved such as physical exertion and proximity of individuals,” PUSD administrators said in their recommendation.

The plan also said a risk-based sample of students in grades 6 to12 will be offered a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, conducted with informed parent or guardian consent.

For the PUSD vaccination program, the Board of Education is being asked to approve PUSD’s Student COVID-19 Vaccination/Testing Requirement, which says all eligible students will be required to show proof of vaccination or to commit to weekly testing. The proof of vaccination requirement will be adhered to prior to October 15, according to the PUSD recommendation.

Children under 12 years old are not currently eligible for any authorized vaccines at this time and will be tested weekly, the recommendation said.

In another action item in the agenda, the Board is expected to approve an agreement between PUSD and the California School Employee Association (CSEA), Pasadena Chapter 434, where PSUD agreed to offer all unit members an off-schedule increase of three percent effective July 1, 2020. The increase is tied to members’ base salary, including longevity service increments, salary ratios, and stipends for unit members employed as of April 1, 2021.

For school year 2021-2022 PUSD shall increase all unit members’ salaries by two percent effective July 1, 2021, the agreement said.

The Board of Education is also set to ratify another agreement, between PUSD and the Teamsters union, Local 911, for a three-percent off-schedule payment for the 2020-2021 school year. The agreement was signed on July 2. When approved, this agreement will translate to a one-time bonus amounting to an estimated $1,647 per employee on the average for the current school year.

Thursday’s Board of Education meeting begins with a closed-door session at 2:30 p.m. The public meeting begins at 3:30 p.m.