Meet the PUSD Board of Education Candidates Ahead of Tonight’s Online Forum

[Editor’s note: You can hear most of these candidates Wednesday evening when the Pasadena League of Women Voters Pasadena Area and the Chamber of Commerce host a Board of Education forum from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. via ZOOM. Click here for details.]

On Nov. 3, the Pasadena Unified School District will move to plurality elections. In short, the candidate with the most votes wins the seat in just one election even if no one manages to get more than 50 percent of the vote.

This year nine candidates are seeking three seats in District 2, 4 and 6, but only one incumbent is running for reelection. Larry Torres and Roy Bouljorian have decided not to step down from the board. Here is a list of the candidates.

PUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 2

Mike Crowley

Mike Crowley is a lifelong Pasadena resident who as a youth attended local schools, including Field School, Hale School (now called Norma Coombs), and Webster Summer School. Today, the platinum-record band manager is a husband, father of a PUSD student, and an education advocate. Crowley says he is running for school board because the district needs passionate leadership, innovative ideas, and sensible solutions. To accomplish that goal, he believes the district must put students first giving them a voice and making sure they are counted as kids – not as “data points” that can be moved about at will. Next, the district must support and ensure the well-being of teachers and staff by giving them the tools to provide a high-quality education to the children. Other ways to accomplish that goal is by promoting anti-bullying campaigns, emergency preparedness programs, and school safety initiatives. He also believes equity must be established across the district.

Website: https://bit.ly/3cjxyUw

Wayne Hammack

Wayne Hammock is running for the Pasadena Board of Education because he wants to give back to the district that has served his children well. But, Hammock believes, certain improvements can be made. They include: improving distance learning, growing the district, bringing equity to schools, preserving school choice, challenging students intellectually, and increasing funding for schools. A resident of Pasadena since 1998, in 2000, Hammock and his wife Nicole moved to their home near Victory Park, where they had three children, two of whom attended Don Benito Fundamental from kindergarten through fifth grade, then moved on to Marshall Fundamental School. Their oldest son graduated this spring as part of the “virtual” Class of 2020 and will study at UC Santa Barbara in the fall. Their daughter just started her freshman year at Marshall Fundamental School. And their youngest son attended preschool at Norma Coombs and Burbank elementary, and thereafter enrolled at Sierra Madre Elementary as part of its K-1 inclusion program. He is now in the fourth grade. Hammock vows to work at ensuring fiscal responsibility with PUSD’s budget while improving public education for all students.

Website: https://www.hammackforpusd.com/
Endorsements: https://www.hammackforpusd.com/endorsements

Jennifer Hall Lee

Jennifer Hall Lee grew up on Staten Island in New York with a dad who was a police officer and a mom who was a social worker. Her mother worked at Willowbrook State School, an outdated institution that housed mentally disabled people. She and several others, along with her parents, forced the closure of Willowbrook. This closure of Willowbrook led to the deinstitutionalization of mentally disabled people across the nation. This was her first experience with politics, power, and the ability for citizens to create change, she says.

Lee believes PUSD needs to grow enrollment, increase financial support, and encourage community members to support the Pasadena Unified School District.
“I understand the power of the community,” Lee said recently.
Lee volunteers as an Altadena Town Council member and chairs the Town Council’s Education Committee. In addition, she chairs the Eliot Arts Annual Fund for Altadena’s PUSD junior high, Eliot Arts Magnet Academy. Lee is also a member of the Rotary Club of Altadena. “When people come together to solve our problems at a local level we are utilizing our power that is needed to solve our problems nationally,” she said.

Website: https://www.lee4pusd.com/
Endorsements: https://www.lee4pusd.com/endorsements

PUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 4

Incumbent Patrick Cahalan

Having spent a quarter-century in education and technology, District 4 incumbent Patrick Cahalan believes he possesses the background skills needed to serve on the Board of Education. Cahalan, who has worked at Caltech since 2002 and is the current manager of technical operations for the Computational and Mathematical Sciences (CMS) Department, also worked at Loyola High School. There he served as director of Curriculum and Technology (1995-1999), developing student and staff training programs. Cahalan has been a resident of Pasadena since 2001 and has been involved in PUSD since his eldest child entered the school district. He served on Longfellow Elementary’s School Site Council from 2012 until his election to the PUSD Board in 2015, serving as chair in his last year. He also served at the district level as a member of the District Advisory Council from 2012-2015. He has also been involved in his neighborhood community, serving on the Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association board and as chair of the Emergency Preparedness Committee. Cahalan believes the Board of Education’s responsibilities should be: developing a long-term Master Plan that engages all stakeholders; providing oversight and guidance of the superintendent’s efforts toward implementation; and performing due diligence and demanding accountability for contractual obligations and resources. Cahalan has served on Longfellow Elementary’s School Site Council from 2012 until his election to the PUSD Board of Education, serving as chair in his last year.

Website: https://www.cahalanfordistrict4.org/

Scott Harden

As a parent of two school-age children and a community leader, Scott Harden says he shares the challenges of PUSD’s families firsthand. Harden says he is running for the Pasadena Board of Education because he believes everyone deserves a school board with a long-range vision that provides unique, innovative, and equitable value to students of all backgrounds. Harden sees declining enrollment, low state funding, lack of affordable housing, and how education is managed in a socially-distant world as serious threats to the growth of the district. And he believes he can restore faith in those who see the board as a body that has lost touch with the people it represents. Harden insists the school board needs a proactive, optimistic, community-based approach to solving problems. So, immediately after taking office, Harden says he will coordinate “solution-focused” workshops throughout the community to ensure all stakeholders are heard

Website: https://hardenforpusd.com/
Endorsements: https://hardenforpusd.com/#endorsements

PUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 6

Milena Albert:

As a mother of three Pasadena Unified School District students, Milena Albert has a 14-year history with the district. She believes the district makes little progress through incremental change, with a high percentage of students still falling further behind, she says. And with Covid-19 countermanding the children’s future, the schools cannot afford a step-by-step approach. This election, she says, brings an opportunity for true reforms. The quickly established remote learning platform, in her opinion, resulted in a disparity of catastrophic proportions for socio-economically disadvantaged English learners and special education students, who cumulatively accounted for over 91 percent of district students. The next school year will take these students even further behind without reliable and effective individual academic intervention in place, she says. As an immigrant and a mother of students in the district, Albert is intimately familiar with challenges many of the district families face daily and pledges to work tirelessly to ensure there is equity in education, students learn for mastery of a subject, every dollar counts, kids are kept safe, and time is mad to work for high schools

Website: https://milena4pusdkids.com/
Endorsements: https://milena4pusdkids.com/endorsements

Crystal Czubernat:

Crystal Czubernat lives in Sierra Madre with her wife Candice and their girl-boy twins, Dylan and Deacon, who will enter first grade this fall at Sierra Madre Elementary School. It is for their sake that Czubernat, as a Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education member, wants to make changes now that will positively impact children’s educational futures and ensure the best educational options and outcomes for years to come. Families, she says, need to feel confident they are sending their children to the best schools, whether they are attending elementary, middle school, or high school. Children have the right to receive a high-quality public education, and she believes it is in our power to make it happen. Crystal has spent nearly twenty years working in education, both as a teacher and then an administrator. She has a Bachelor’s in Secondary Education, Masters in Counseling, another Masters in Curriculum and Instruction, and is working toward completing a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. Czubernat has spent her career saving schools and colleges that were moving toward closure, and has the experience, ambition, and most importantly — with her own children in the school district — the heart to move the district forward.

Website: https://www.crystalforpusd.com/
Endorsements: https://www.crystalforpusd.com/endorsements

Tina Wu Fredricks:

A 10-year resident of Pasadena and a mother of two PUSD students, Tina Wu Fredricks says she is one of those parents who doesn’t leave after the bell rings. Fredricks has been an active parent volunteer at Willard Elementary School, serving on the PTA Board for multiple terms as vice president, treasurer, and legislative advocate. But her involvement goes beyond her daughters’ schools. That’s why when a proposal was made to open a new charter school in 2020, she spoke up, asking the school board to question the proposal, then showed up again to praise the district leadership in their decision to start a new dual-language program instead, Fredricks. “Limited resources can pit schools and families against each other,” Fredricks observed. As a member of the Board of Education, she wants to see families unite and organize to fight for more funding so all students benefit in an equitable way. Fredricks believes the best way to put the district on the right path is by reducing class size; hiring more teachers, and a librarian, nurse, custodian, and counselor in every school; providing the highest safety standards for reopening schools; and expecting more,” Because our kids are worth it,” she said.

Website: https://www.tina4pusd.com/
Endorsements: https://www.tina4pusd.com/endorsements
Campaign Info: https://www.tina4pusd.com/platform

Priscilla Hernandez:

Priscilla Hernandez is vice president of the Hollenbeck Police Business Council. A nationally recognized organization, Hollenbeck Police Business Council is a five-decade-old provider of safe and quality afterschool programming and most notably the founding agency of the Inner-City Games (now known as After-school All-Stars).
Prior to serving at the Hollenbeck Police Business Council, Hernandez served as a deputy director under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Her tenure with Schwarzenegger has been noted for her coalition-building, highly-visible event planning, project management, and external relations with key California stakeholders. Hernandez was part of the Proposition 49 Initiative that helped secure funding for afterschool programming. Hernandez says she is running because she knows her toolset aligns with all the responsibilities set forth for a Board Member: She has expertise in budget development and analysis, establishing organizational policies, human resources, and identifying innovative methods to provide services. However, her greatest accomplishment is what has equipped her most for this position: She is a Mom.

Hernandez believes students come first and school board members should lead with financial diligence and sensitivity. She says teachers should have the tools and resources to succeed, that challenges to equity must be challenged, communication with all areas of the district must be maintained, and the district must work to increase the PUSD’s student population.

Website: https://priscillaforourschools.com/
Endorsements: https://priscillaforourschools.com/#Endorsements