Heat Turns Up on Measure CC-Opposition is Forming

It looks to be a schoolyard fight as proponents and opponents of Measure CC, the parcel tax that the Pasadena Unified School District seeks on homes and businesses, line up using an unending stream of statistics to defend their distinctly different points of view. The Quality Education Preservation Act, as Measure CC is called, is a mail-in only ballot with a deadline date of May 4 that would allow the district to place a $120 charge per property parcel on the property tax rolls beginning with the next tax year, July 1. To pass, the measure requires a 2/3 plurality of property owners in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre and is based on a count of those who send in ballots marking their preference.
The District says it is asking citizens to pony up extra money because of the threat that Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget for 2010-2011 will add about $7.5 million to its current $15.5million deficit, to a total of $23.5 million. Superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District, Edwin Diaz, says, “A catastrophic reduction of state funding for public schools has had dire consequences here at PUSD. In December, the Board of Education acted on a fiscal stabilization plan that includes more than $21 million in reductions to the general fund over the next two years.” He says the Governor’s proposal, if passed as presented, will cause less money for the school district and that equates to as many as 220 layoffs from various functions. Layoff notices, called Reduction in Force (RIF), are required to be sent each year no later than March 15 to those under consideration should a layoff become necessary. These RIFs are only a shot-across-the-bow that trouble may lay ahead, not actual pink slips. That RIF notices were going out was announced on March 10 at a Board meeting. If enacted, the reduction, the board said, would affect 124 classroom teachers, 76 of them from the elementary grades where class loads are lighter. Final notices of layoff action would be mailed by May 15.
Defending these cuts, the District says that it has previously reduced more than $33 million from the budget since 2004 by slicing certificated administration, central office staff, maintenance and operations, clerical and office staff and the number of teachers. Current cuts are in response to a directive from the Los Angeles County Office of Education which require the district to remove over $20 million from its budget in order to receive that office’s approval for a two-year period, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. Measure CC would provide a total of $14 million over the two fiscal periods. The measure itself would continue for three more fiscal budget periods before expiring, raising an additional $21 million.
Opposition to the measure has come from the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. At its February board meeting it voted to formally take a position in opposition to Measure CC, in large part because the Chamber was disturbed by the vagueness of what the district would do with the money, and what sort of oversight and accountability would be put in place.
Reacting to the negative recommendation by the Chamber was swift. Board of Education Vice-President Scott Phelps writing in the Pasadena Weekly charged that Chamber members were elitist and their action unworthy. “They have made sure Pasadena remains a community of haves and the have nots,” he wrote. Phelps did not directly address the transparency issue, one of his key platforms in his campaign for Board of Education. The Sierra Madre Chamber of Commerce is currently polling its membership before it takes a formal stand on the ballot measure, but Sierra Madre’s City Council has endorsed the measure. Pasadena’s City Council has also endorsed Measure CC.
Diaz himself has stirred the controversial measure with his disarming support of the educational progress the District has made over several years. He says the PSUD students are performing at record-high levels and that schools are earning recognition for academic achievement. Yet, by Federal “No Child Left Behind” standards or the California STAR testing standards, the students are underperforming by many points when compared to other local schools. Progress has been made, public documents show, but overall district performance is sadly behind. Those who do not support the Measure point to the poor test results.
The Pasadena Chamber was persuaded by Ross. S. Selvidge who presented the opposition view. Dr. Selvidge believes that the measure is poorly drafted, unnecessary and grossly unfair to many parties, including seniors. Selvidge told the Chamber Board that 10 years ago PUSD’s performance was below average and is still below average in spite of the fact that spending per student has exceeded inflation by more than 60%. He says that Pasadena schools have spent more per student than 91% of the other 47 unified school districts in Los Angeles County. He questions the need for more money since the district’s student enrollment has steadily declined at a much faster rate than staffing has been reduced. His report said 40% of PUSD schools failed to meet their Academic Performance Index growth targets.
One person trying to clarify her stance on the measure is retired Arcadia Unified School District Superintendent, Mimi Hennessy who wrote a piece for the Arcadia Weekly in which she touted the superiority of the student population, parental support and teaching staff in Arcadia schools. This piece is being used by the No on Measure CC campaign to demonstrate just how far behind Pasadena is in relation to area schools. Upon realizing that her words were being used against Measure CC, she quickly reacted that her words had been mis-used.
“To set the record straight, the conclusions drawn…are not accurate reflections of what I said then or now.” Hennessy concluded that, “As Pasadenans, we need to invest in the one thing that will make or break the future of our community, our economy, our citizenry, and support Measure CC.”

Edwin Diaz, Superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District, announced he will take a cut in pay to demonstrate that State budget cuts are going to hurt everyone. Diaz was hired in 2007 with a salary of $230,600.
Photo by Terry Miller

Other difficulties the promoters of Measure CC face include the various unions that represent teachers, staff and maintenance operations. Negotiations are in progress at the present time between PUSD and United Teachers, but they have stalled and are due to enter mediation. Furlough plans have been presented by union groups and those plans are on the table as part of the negotiations.
Enrollment in the District has dropped some 11% and Diaz has said that “schools”-which ones have not been announce-will be closed in 2011. The District relies in large part on State money that is distributed through Average Daily Attendance (ADA) figures. In addition to the lower enrollment, drop-outs continue to plague Pasadena. Recent efforts to increase attendance have been successful, but about 4% of the students don’t make it to class losing the District around $800,000 a year.

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