Guest Opinion: PUSD
Comments: 15 - Date: September 14th, 2007 - Categories: I (heart) Pasadena!, The State of Things, Guest Opinion
One of my legions of fans sent this into me. As a request, the writer shall remain anonymous.
Pasadena Unified School District: Spending Money We Don’t Have
The real estate boom over the past few years (which is now being likened to the dot com crash of the 90’s) has prompted many of the lower income Pasadenans to sell out and move to greener pastures while more affluent folks – who either have no kids or send theirs to private school – have moved in. It was this lack of butts in seats, as it were, which caused the much publicized closing of the four local public schools. Less students attending our public schools means less state funding which means less money for Pasadena public school students … or so they say.
To be honest, I’ve seen first-hand a severe lack of funding in the Pasadena School District for many years, stretching back to the days when you could still find a decent house in Altadena for under $200,000., long before the big yuppie invasion of the past few years. Why, just in 2001 I witnessed teachers at Altadena Elementary scrambling to be the first one to the supply room on delivery day and resorting to hoarding just to maintain the bare minimum of those necessary tools a teacher needs to teach a class.
It is now 2007 and our school district seems to have come no farther. Don Benito Elementary was forced to fire their librarian just last year for lack of funds. The school’s parents got together and set up their own library on the campus with mostly donated books but it remained closed as they were still unable to raise the $20,000. salary necessary to hire a librarian. The highest ranking elementary school in the city didn’t even have a librarian… Hell, they didn’t even have a P.E. teacher. Each home room instructor was in charge of the physical education for their respective class. People who had no physical education themselves, no training, who most likely weren’t even involved in sports or any sort of athletics themselves, and possibly never were, were teaching P.E. to our students. That’s the equivalent of an English teacher teaching Mathematics or a Science teacher teaching Music.
Funding this year has allowed Don Benito to hire the much needed P.E. teacher. But the situation would cause one to ask: for a city as rich as Pasadena is, why is our school district considered in worse shape than those belonging to some of the most socially repressed, crime-ridden, financially undernourished cities in the entire state?
Maybe it’s because the powers that be decided it was more feasible to hire a superintendent at the rate of $360,000. per year than to hire a librarian at $20,000. And just five or six months later, they have now put out, as the Star-News called it, “a help wanted sign” for an Assistant Superintendent at the rate of $200,000. per year. Tell me they had no one in mind for the job when they cooked up this travesty. Tell me they didn’t take down that sign as soon as they put it up.
More bureaucracy isn’t going to clean up our school district. Dumping close to $600,000. into two salaries isn’t going to fix the dilapidated school buildings or hire the teachers needed to keep our city’s children from slipping through the cracks. The people who send their children to public school are just as important as the people who don’t. We pay our property taxes just like the next guy. We patronize local businesses and vote in elections along with everyone else.
The Pasadena Mayoral seat was on rotation back in the day between members of the city council. That was a great system! It kept the good ole boy club out of Pasadena politics… for the most part. I propose Pasadena Unified adopt that same system. Let the Principals of all the Pasadena Public Schools rotate in and out of the Superintendent position… and the Assistant to Superintendent, if that position is so necessary. At least that way we could be sure that the person in control is there for the kids and not just some puppet for the government. Then we could put our money back into the children where it belongs instead of into the pockets of bureaucrats.
- AP
Comment by Stace - September 14, 2007 @ 6:45 pm
Not that I have any kids, but I’d sooner send my kid to Iraq than a Pasadena public school. I’m not just being a smart ass either. Haven’t they been a mess for decades? My dad, who grew up in Pasadena and is now 62, once told me that the schools have been in bad shape since probably about the 1970’s.
It is odd though. With all the property taxes collected here, you’d think the schools would be more flush with money than they are. I know I’m paying out the butt in property taxes every month (not that I’m bitter
) and I was always under the assumption that much of that money goes to local schools.
No one (and I mean no one) working for the public education system should be making $360,000. I don’t care who you are or what you do - no dice. I agree with the author on a lot of his/her points. At the end of the day though, there are a myriad of factors why Pasadena public schools are in the shitter and frankly, what was pointed out in the letter is only a small fraction of it.
Comment by Jeremiah - September 15, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
First of all with an annual budget of something like a quarter BILLION… as in nine figures… as in $250,000,000, spending less than 0.1% of that on an executive is not in and of itself obscene, especially if s/he is being hired to “find efficiencies” which (if successful) would not only offset the cost of their own salary (which was only approved for 1 year btw), but will help root out other inefficiencies and bring the budget into balance.
(can you say “hatchet man”?)
http://www.bullshitjob.com/officespace/fireonfriday.wav
Personally, I think it is smart for Diaz to bring in a hired gun to clean house and keep the blood off his hands. A dysfunctional entrenched bureaucracy is a tough thing to fix. The realist/pessimist in me says there’s a good chance that this is not the magic bullet, but we have to Diaz do his job, and you have to spend money to make/save money. They can’t just do nothing.
Further more, the money they propose to spend could never be spent for facilities upgrades. Totally separate pools of money. The renovation of Noyes (where Aveson is now operating) cost something like $5 million of measure Y bond money, or 25 years of that Chief of Staff salary… just to fix up ONE school site out of something like 30. Bigger sites like Muir cost something like $15 million to renovate.
Declining enrollment is a fact of life, and public school funding is controlled by the State based on average daily attendance. Property taxes are not earmarked at the local level for schools (out Stace’s butt or not). The smartest thing the school administration has done in the last year is close four school sites, to consolidate resources. With 20 (formerly 24) elementary school sites, partially full, and the funding based on the number of kids enrolled, it’s easy to see why there are not enough librarians and PE teachers to go around.
Underfunding of schools is a huge statewide problem. California is something like 45th in per capita spending among 50 states but our cost of living is among the highest. This is not to excuse failure, but I see it as a real conundrum. Schools are doing badly. The two extremes argue that the answer is better management or increased funding. Neither wants to give concede to the other. In a perfect world, we’d replace the management AND give them better funding.
But this is not to say that I think all is lost.
First off, it’s easy to sling mud at the public school system, because they are big and have mandatory benchmarking which is public. So you can see all the good and the bad, unvarnished, with little effort. Private schools, in my opinion, can give people a false sense of security. They generally have no uniform curriculum standards, no teacher accreditation requirements, and no obligation to publish any kind of test scores or benchmarks. The only standard one could arguably measure about private schools is the placement rate in colleges, but how does that trace back to elementary school level? I think it doth not.
For those who think the PUSD is totally failing and feel compelled to slander it to the detriment of the kids that are succeeding there, I suggest that you go visit some of the well performing elementary schools and see for yourself. There is a huge difference in quality from one school to the next, which is in and of itself a big problem, but there are schools doing an excellent job of educating children. Go visit Willard Elementary http://willard-pta.org/ and talk to Principal Kathy Onoye. Visit Webster, Hamilton, Sierra Madre, Longfellow, the list goes on. There are lots of schools providing excellent elementary education.
Middle School and High School have much larger student bodies, and while that means fewer choices, it also means greater diversity. Go visit Marshall. Go visit Blair http://www.blairibmagnet.org/ Talk to Principal Rich Boccia. You will be charmed and impressed. Blair struggles with an old facility that could definitely use improvements, but there is a spark there, and the whole Blair community has a fierce pride in what they have achieved.
Kathy Onoye and Rich Boccia are proof to me that principals are where the rubber meets the road as far as school quality goes.
The original author asks, “why is our school district considered in worse shape than those belonging to some of the most socially repressed, crime-ridden, financially undernourished cities in the entire state?”
Where doe s/he come up with this generalization? To echo this falsehood is contribute to a self-fulfilling prophesy. Frankly this is the same kind of old news I have heard in snobby cocktail parties since I moved here in 1998. It’s like getting one of those chain emails from your half-nutty aunt that you thought was lame in 1997, but she is still believing that Bill Gates will pay her for forwarding it to everyone in her address book. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp
It’s easy to Sock on PUSD (SOP), but what are you going to DO about it? As everybody knows, school funding is pathetic in CA, and if you think that is a crime, get active on the issue. But taking anonymous ill-informed potshots at the district based on a myopic correlation between a somewhat visible tiny fraction of a percent budget item is just stupid.
Last year there were fairly extreme projections of declining enrollment for this year, and despite the tone of the headlines when the numbers actually came out, the fact is, the dire predictions for the enrollment decline did not come to pass. This is really good news.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pasadenaschools/message/633
Get informed, get involved, and stop being one of the anonymous detractors.
Comment by Isaac Garcia - September 15, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
Where did the author come up with $360,000 salary?
I’ve read about $200k, but not $360k?
Comment by Kathy - September 15, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
The taxes we pay all go to Sacramento, which then gives money back to the schools based on attendance and special student needs. If you check out http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us, you’ll find that Pasadena actually spends over $1,100 more per year per student than neighboring La Canada. Pasadena also has more favorable student-teacher ratios. Even so, La Canada has much higher test scores and a non-existent dropout rate.
You’re right Aaron, to question how the money is being spent. That’s an awful lot to spend on an administrator. Every piece of the puzzle must take responsibility, however: administration, teachers, and most of all, parents and students.
It’s been bad since Prop. 13 passed and since busing started. It’s no wonder many people bail on the public schools if they can, and either move or send their kids to private school.
Hopefully it’ll change someday, but until then, people aren’t going to take a chance with their kids if they don’t have to.
Comment by Anonymous - September 16, 2007 @ 7:13 am
Isaac, are you an administrator or do you work for the union?
Comment by Miss Havisham - September 16, 2007 @ 1:58 pm
Where oh where does all the Lotto money go?
(sigh)
The firing of the librarian hurts my heart. The rotation idea among principals to superintendent is veddy smart.
Comment by flobby - September 16, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Jeremiah, Are you a school administrator or union representative?
Comment by Jeremiah - September 16, 2007 @ 4:37 pm
No, why do you ask?
Was it my comment, “I think it is smart for Diaz to bring in a hired gun to clean house,” that makes me sound pro union?
Did my calling PUSD a “dysfunctional entrenched bureaucracy,” make me sound like a school administrator?
Comment by flobby - September 16, 2007 @ 7:55 pm
No, Jeremiah, it was more the overall message and tone. I hope you did not think it an insult. Not intended as one.
Comment by Jeremiah - September 17, 2007 @ 12:43 pm
Oh, LOL! Given the context, I did take it as the same sort of sarcastic derision as someone asking with mock concern, “are you a lawyer” or “do you work for the IRS” (just kidding Lawyers and IRS agents!)
Jeremiah
Comment by flobby - September 17, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
See, I try to be nice and get smacked in return. tsk tsk. Just wondered where all the knowledge came from. Good example as to why the dialog gets nowhere. The folks with all the answers don’t tolerate questions. Apologies. I should have known better.
Comment by Jeremiah - September 18, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
Sorry again Flobby. I tend to be a bit defensive about the fact that I don’t write PUSD off as a lost cause. There are many outspoken folks who gird themselves with facts to shore up their agendas and the resort to name calling and histrionics if you try to engage them in civil debate.
On another note…
This just in:
http://manila.pasadena.k12.ca.us/PUSDNews/2007/09/18#a456
Says “Compensation will be competitive and commensurate with experience: $175,000-$200,000 negotiable. A contractor relationship is anticipated to fit the short term nature of the position.”
The job posting:
http://www.pusd.us/cos
Says (paraphrasing) “sharp hatchet a plus”
Comment by Isaac Garcia - September 19, 2007 @ 3:05 pm
Anonymous - “Are you an idiot or fool?”
It should take you no less than 1 second to find out who I am if you exerted one iota of effort.
Comment by flobby - September 19, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
Jeremiah, no problem. One of my parents taught for decades in the same PUSD classroom, so I love the district ultimately. I get tired of the debate and short tempered myself. So I wish you well in trying to improve it and salute that your heart is still in the struggle.
Comment by anonymous - September 21, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
Isaac, tell me the difference between an idiot and a fool so I can answer your question. Also, is an iota a recognized unit of energy? You make it so difficult to follow.
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