School Board Votes to Keep Jefferson Lease Agreement With City, Longfellow Students Will Be Relocated to Allendale

[Updated]  Despite the appeals of scores of Longfellow Elementary School parents who packed the Pasadena Unified School District Board chambers Thursday evening, the Pasadena Board of Education voted 4-3 to temporarily relocate Longfellow students to Allendale Elementary while their campus undergoes renovations.

The vote undoes an earlier Board vote that would have sent the Longfellow students to Jefferson Elementary, which is under lease to the City of Pasadena until 2027.

The February vote was invalidated because it had not been agendized or publicly noticed beforehand and was in violation of the Brown Act.

Both Mayor Victor Gordo and Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin spoke out against terminating the City’s lease of Jefferson at the Thursday night Board meeting before the vote.

Gordo emphasized the importance of “working together with the Pasadena Unified School District,” and Augustin emphasized the value of the firefighting academy now built at the Jefferson Elementary campus, especially for young female students.

The City pays the District $100,000 per year to use the Jefferson campus.

The Board voted on three related motions. Two would have terminated the lease agreement with the City (with one offering to help the City relocate the services currently there).

The final vote to relocate the students to the vacant Allendale Elementary campus passed with the support of Board Members Michelle Richardson Bailey, Jennifer Hall Lee, Patrice Marshall McKenzie, and Dr. Yarma Velázquez.

Velázquez had voted to terminate the City lease in the earlier February vote.

Allendale Elementary School is farther from Longfellow Elementary than is the Jefferson campus. The District has plans to provide buses for transportation.

Board Member Tina Fredricks was particularly vocal in her support of terminating the City lease, holding up a sign and shouting during the Board vote.

“While students at Longfellow may come from anywhere across the District, the data shows that in fact the majority of Longfellow students actually live in the neighborhood,” Fredericks said. “Why would we disadvantage 447 students who are already socio-economically disadvantaged when we can make their learning easier?”

“Our Mandate as a School Board is not to be City first, it is to be Student first,” Fredericks said.

She left the meeting after the vote was concluded and returned later during the next item.

The decision means that Longfellow Elementary School staff and students will be relocated to the former Allendale Elementary School campus during an upcoming one-year modernization program on the Longfellow campus.