Altadena: Our Public Schools

"The state of the district is good and the future is positive." Those words were spoken by PUSD School Board President Lawrence Torres on the night of April 4 at Sierra Madre Middle School. His speech was the main event at the annual State of the Schools presentation which was attended by parents, administrators, school board members, and staff. Torres updated us on our finances and gave us an overview of the financial health of the district. We were also reminded that Measure J passed with 70% of the vote! Thank you, voters! The event itself, as I experienced it, while sitting in the front row of the auditorium next to a representative from Congresswoman Judy Chu’s office and Senator Portantino’s office, was a simple, yet powerful reminder that democracy isn't possible without participants. Sitting in the audience amongst friends and colleagues I took notes as Torres spoke. A few facts intrigued me: We will meet our fiscal obligations for the next three y...

The Altadena Eliot Arts drama department is working on their new musical production, Hairspray! It will be performed in the Eliot auditorium in May! If you loved Alice in Wonderland in 2018, you'll love Hairspray! Eliot has its own costume shop and the costumes are handmade or up cycled. These students are learning the art of costuming. They need our support and they have a handy  gofundme  campaign. Let's click and give!   https://www.gofundme.com/eliotartsdrama Eliot students designing Hairspray costumes As Eliot parent Isabelle Skidmore just mentioned in her facebook post, "Last year we wowed audiences with dazzling costumes in the style of Chagall and the bauhaus. This year our show will be influenced by 1960s Sister Mary Corita Kent, Rosalyn Drexler and Idelle Weber." Go Eliot Arts!   #Eliot4Hairspray Ms. Courtney instructing students on design and sewing. She's also our PTSA President.  Alice costume 2018 Alice...

The dollar bill was on the sidewalk and in one swoop I grabbed it and pocketed it for our school annual fund. Every dollar counts. Our annual fund committee is comprised of parents and we count the dollars and cents carefully and often. We think of clever ways to raise money. Money is scarce, or is it? It surprises me how hard it is to raise money for a public school. We live in a school district in a city with no parcel tax to support our public schools. (A parcel tax was on the ballot in 2010 that would have assessed each home $120 per year to support our public schools. It didn't pass.) Our annual fund is brand new and when we initially set our goal of $50,000 I felt a lump in my throat, "Can we make it?" The answer is yes, we are halfway there. I am happy that our committee never stops working. We have school-wide efforts, we make food to sell, we ask parents and community members for monthly contributions and we create interesting events where we can ch...

Please join us. All artists will be there to discuss their murals painted on the walls of the magnificent school, Eliot Arts Magnet Academy. This is a chance to walk through the halls of Eliot and see the great architecture, too! Where: Eliot Arts Magnet Academy When: February 6, 2019 at 5pm Tickets are $5 and children are free!

"We are fighting for what's right against a wealthy banker Superintendent with no education experience. It's hard not being with my students and doing what I love but this is important" - LeighAnn Samuel Democracy is not a business. LATimes: Teachers also marched on the downtown offices of the California Charter Schools Assn., surrounding the office tower clad in the union’s bright red. Caputo-Pearl has called for a moratorium on new charters, which are privately operated, mostly nonunion and compete with district-run schools for students and the funding that follows them. Charters now enroll about 1 in 5 district students.

Sign ready for Strike tomorrow Tomorrow marks the first strike in LAUSD in 30 years. I have been a teacher in the district for 20 years. I love being a teacher and after the experience I have gained and  having my own children in public schools, I am now a public education advocate. Why is there a need to dedicate hours and hours of my life after working full time as a teacher to this cause? Because public education is under attack.  UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles) realizes this and as the largest school district in the state and second largest in the country, there is a desperate need to get the word out and take a stand. Peter Greene writes in a Forbes article that this is a different type of strike.   He points out that unfortunately we can no longer assume that the powers that be want a healthy public school system.  If they break it down enough, they can open the doors to unregulated charters  where they can drain public money and run schools...

When the LAUSD school board picked Austin Beutner as the superintendent they brought LAUSD closer to privatization.  LAUSD teachers are about to strike.  From today's Washington Post: "The union says Beutner and school board members who voted him in are trying to privatize the district, encouraging school closures and flipping public schools into charters. Charter schools are privately operated public schools that compete for students and the funds they bring in. Is privatization of public schools good or bad? In order to have a factual discussion about the privatization of schools it's worth researching the current attempts to privatize our public spaces.  Here is a good article about the privatization of sidewalks. "Stop Privatizing Our Public Spaces" “A sidewalk is a quintessentially American public space,” said CRE Chief Counsel Nate Kellum. “Montgomery County’s policy of letting a private company control the sidewalks and banning religious...

Charters have risen in North Carolina causing a lack of students in public schools.  Remember in 2016 when North Carolina was no longer classified as a democracy? I do. From North Carolina: "Durham Public Schools have shrunk by more than 1,000 students over the past four years, at the same time enrollment from Durham families in charter schools has gone up by more than 1,700 children."  No longer a Democracy  from 2016 "In the just released EIP report, North Carolina’s overall electoral integrity score of 58/100 for the 2016 election places us alongside authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies like Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. If it were a nation state, North Carolina would rank right in the middle of the global league table – a deeply flawed, partly free democracy that is only slightly ahead of the failed democracies that constitute much of the developing world."  -JHL

Join us at Discovery Day for Altadena Arts Magnet Here is the Facebook page for the event on January 12 https://www.facebook.com/events/342912399627891/

This is a great piece called " Putting the public back into public accountability " It reveals a lot of what I've been thinking about in terms of the fight to save our public schools.  The accountability movement is strong. It also has the backing of many billionaires and people with access to media get their point across to millions.  The accountability movement hugs test scores.  This embracing of test scores which are used to judge an entire school is equivalent of an airdrop of propaganda in a war.  In our case the airdrop is a score or a ranking that when repeated enough times can ultimately close a school and fracture a community. Communities make up a democracy.  Rankings and test scores have obscured and almost obliterated the original meaning of public schools.  "Educational accountability has been relentlessly criticized for its imperfections over the past 15 years. These criticisms generally take aim at the narrowness of me...

Public Schools are central pillars of democracy in our local communities. They were created to help shore up our democratic republic. Of course, the accountability movement, with its billionaires, would love to say that public schools should be run like businesses. However, public schools are not businesses. They are part of our government. Here is an article from 2014 that is relevant in our pre-election day conversations about Measure I and J here in Pasadena. Founding Fathers agreed: Funding public education is not debate   "Public schools by their nature require tax dollars. Spending money on public schools does not inherently make them bloated, it makes them public." 

The Pasadena Education Facebook page is a great place for information. An article from The Stanford Daily was posted today about a Stanford study and the inequity in our public schools. It is titled "Stanford-coordinated study finds persistent inequities in California public schools." One of our parents wrote this insightful comment: The main thing that stood out for me was the paradox -- that isn't news to anyone here -- of a school district perpetually struggling with funding crises despite the abundance of multi-million-dollar homes and frequent sightings of luxury vehicles on our streets and in our parking garages.  McKinley is a particularly striking example, being located within walking distance of Pasadena's financial center...and several high-end shopping and dining destinations. Yet we keep having to fight for every dollar, to repeatedly justify vital resources, never mind the ongoing dream of installing a shade structure so that our children don...

The school board meeting last Thursday was packed with students, teachers and administrators coming to make public comments about a possible consolidation plan for PUSD. Each person got two minutes to voice their opinions. Two minutes of talk from seemingly random people may sound uninteresting for some, but when we consider that democracy is maintained by participating in public spaces one can see public comment from an interesting perspective. Being able to speak freely in public is a component of democracy. Doing this in concert with one another is a force of nature. One of the topics at this meeting was the plan to consolidate and possibly close schools within PUSD. One of those schools is in Altadena and this is a contentious subject as Altadena has already had five public schools closed leaving us with five public schools still in operation. We also have four charter schools and one private school within our boundaries. Public schools and school board meetings are pub...

Life reveals contrasts and if you're lucky enough to see them you can tell an important story. Last night I attended a wonderful event at Eliot Arts Magnet Academy. It was a gallery exhibit of the Alice in Wonderland costumes. The principal and the teachers were there with PUSD administrators and school board members. It was happy, joyful and teeming with good will. I discussed the school, the community, and the purpose of public school with many people. It was democracy in action. The students were proud of their work and I was happy to be an Eliot parent. After the event I got in my car and and checked my email. A post had gone up on a local neighborhood forum and it was filled with negativity (and untruths) about PUSD in general. The overall student body was mentioned in a negative light. I responded immediately and spoke of the event I had just attended. The sentiments expressed in the post are indicative of opinions that were rooted in our community a long time ag...

This is a new blog dedicated to the public schools here in Altadena. We believe that the public school system is integral to a democratic republic. Public schools are public spaces and they are vital to a democracy. The picture above is from the 18th Avenue school in Newark, NJ. It was built in 1876. In 2012 it was closed due to low enrollment and it is now a for profit charter school. Privatization of public schools runs counter to a democracy. Administrators: LeighAnn Samuel Jennifer Hall Lee

We received this document in the other day and were surprised to see an Altadena public school (a PUSD school) on the list as a potential closure. Potential. This is a key word. Please read the document for a full understanding of what will be discussed. http://pusd.granicus.com/ MetaViewer.php?view_id=15& event_id=350&meta_id=106103 There is a meeting of the School Board on Thursday night. We will be there! FYI: Altadena has had 5 public schools close in the past. Here is the list: Altadena school closures: 1. Audubon Elementary 725 W. Altadena Drive Altadena (When was Audubon closed?) 2. Noyes Elementary 1919 Pinecrest Dr. Altadena (Closed June 2006) 3. Edison Elementary 119 W. Palm St. Altadena (Closed June 2006) 4. Burbank Elementary 2046 Allen Ave. Altadena (Closed June 2011) 5. Loma Alta Elementary 3544 Canon Blvd. Altadena (Closed June 2011) Pasadena closures: 1. Linda Vista (2006) 2. Allendale (2006) Quote ...