‘Emergency’ Coronavirus Resolution Expands PUSD Superintendent’s Role

The Pasadena school board on Thursday night voted unanimously to approve an “emergency” resolution, granting Superintendent Brian McDonald what board President Patrick Cahalan called “limited expanded authority” to react swiftly to events related to the novel coronavirus pandemic – up to and including closing the schools without necessarily consulting further with the board.

For now, there have been “no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in PUSD,” McDonald said – and schools remained open as usual..

But in the fast-moving cyclone of coronavirus news, that could change at any moment. Just hours before Thursday night’s emergency resolution, McDonald reported that several PUSD staff members had been tested for COVID-19, with the results still pending.

The superintendent told Pasadena Now that those staffers, who were not identified, would not be in the schools until their test results are known, and that, “We have no information that they had any contact with kids.’’

McDonald said that PUSD officials “are in ongoing communication with the City of Pasadena Public Health and L.A. County Public Health’’ in regard to those staffers.

While the school board’s resolution declared “emergency conditions exist at Pasadena Unified School District,” officials categorized it as proactive and precautionary – and not indicative of any heightened danger in PUSD facilities.

The move came just hours after officials at City Hall — as well as at other Pasadena venues such as the Rose Bowl, Pasadena Playhouse, Boston Court and the Senior Center — announced either the cancellation or scaling back of major events.

And those announcements came amid an avalanche of closures nationwide and regionally, including the closure of Disneyland here in the L.A. area.

As of Thursday, there were 198 known cases of coronavirus in the state and 32 in Los Angeles County, including one in Pasadena and four in Long Beach.

“This particular resolution tonight is not about whether we close schools or not, although that may be an outcome of passing this resolution,’’ Cahalan said during public discussion of the matter.

“What it is, is giving the superintendent limited expanded authority to make executive-level decisions in response to changing conditions on the ground without having to take the measure of calling a special board meeting, waiting for a quorum of board members to be available and for us to vote on each individual action.’’

While McDonald’s temporary new authority could lead him to order some or all of the city’s schools to close in reaction to the coronavirus crisis, it could also be exercised in less dramatic ways, as circumstances dictate, Cahalan said.

As an example, the board president said, “Maybe if there was an incident at one school site that required the whole school site to be deep-cleaned, and we don’t currently have an open purchase order, and the only cost estimate the superintendent could get would be over the purchase-order authorization limit, normally you would have to wait until the board can approve something like that. In this case, he would be able to go ahead on his own.”

Basically, Cahalan described the move as eliminating “red tape.”

McDonald, meanwhile, stressed that “safety above all else’’ would guide any decision to close a school or schools – and that if he were to do so, it would be in consultation with the city’s director of public health, Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, as well of the county’s director of public health.
But other considerations will weigh on McDonald in the coming days as well — including continued state funding for the city’s schools (which is based on attendance); the continuation of such services as meals and medical care for students; and the possible disruption of what amounts to day-care services the district provides for many working families who do not have adults at home during the school day.
“Sixty-plus percent of our district is free and reduced lunch,’’ Cahalan said. “These are people that work one, two, sometimes three jobs. They don’t have adults at home, so they rely on this district.”

Both Cahalan and McDonald said they were hoping that Gov. Gavin Newsom would make an announcement in the coming day or so about whether he would continue state funding for schools around the state in the event that closures become necessary.

“It’s conceivable that the governor might direct, so to speak, districts to close, like they’ve done in Ohio,’’ McDonald told Pasadena Now.
In such a case, or if Pasadena decided independently to close a school or schools, it’s possible the PUSD could “submit a waiver and they would more than likely use the average daily attendance from last year as a basis to fund the schools,’’ McDonald said.

However, neither McDonald nor Cahalan wanted to get into hypotheticals about what the governor might or might not do in the coming days in regard to funding schools facing possible closure.

“This situation is extremely fluid,’’ Cahalan said. “I expect there will be movement at the state level, I expect there will be movement at the federal level.

“One of things that we may want to do is keep open one or two school sites as a day-care facility for members of the community,’’ Cahalan added. “Depending on what the governor decides to do, he may give us the authority to do that, the ability to do that, he may provide additional funding to do that and eliminate that worry of a good number of our community members who rely (on the schools for child care, meals, etc.).

“He could do a number of different things, and I wouldn’t want to hypothesize exactly what the governor would do.’’

Board Vice President Scott Phelps also pointed out concerns of employees getting paid if schools were to close.

He said the district was hoping the governor would provide “a broad range of relief.’’

NOTES: The resolution passed 5-0, with board members Elizabeth Pomeroy and Roy Boulghourjian absent, and Michelle Richardson Bailey participating remotely from her home. Cahalan said Pomeroy and Boulghourjian had called in “sick,” but that “I don’t know what their symptoms are.” It was not immediately known why Richardson Bailey participated remotely, although experts are recommending tele-conferencing of that kind, where possible, as a good safeguard against the spread of the virus. … The audience at the meeting was unusually sparse as well – with only four residents turning out, and sitting well-spaced apart. One of the audience members sanitized the back of the chair in front of her with an antibacterial wipe. … Phelps wore gloves throughout the meeting.