Money Matters Dominate PUSD Candidates Forum

Not surprisingly for a school district suffering from declining enrollment, school closures, teacher and staff layoffs and all manner of financial woes, money issues were a dominant theme Wednesday evening when nine hopefuls vying for three seats on the Pasadena Unified School District school board gathered via Zoom for a candidates’ forum.

The event, co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area and the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, brought together the nine, who will compete on the Nov. 3 ballot for the open seats in School Districts 2, 4 and 6.

In District 2, Mike Crowley, Wayne Hammack and Jennifer Hall Lee are competing for the seat currently held by Roy Boulghorjian, who is not seeking re-election.

In District 4, current school-board President Patrick Cahalan is seeking a second term, the only incumbent on the ballot. He is facing challenger Scott Harden.

In District 6, Milena Albert, Crystal Czubernat, Tina Wu Fredericks and Priscilla Hernandez are vying for the seat now held by Lawrence Torres, who also is not seeking re-election.

All the contenders were on hand Wednesday for a two-hour Zoom forum in which moderator Dorothy Keane of the local League of Women Voters read questions sent in by the public and gave each candidate one minute to answer.

Among the half-dozen questions asked of each hopeful were their positions on Pasadena’s Measure O and the statewide Proposition 15 — both on the Nov. 3 ballot, and both involving possible influxes of funds to the PUSD’s coffers.

Measure O is a $516,300,000 school bond question that Pasadena voters will be asked to decide on Nov. 3. If approved, the proceeds would generate some $60 million to upgrade the PUSD’s computers and other educational technology, while $456,280,000 would go to upgrade district facilities.

Prop 15, known as the Schools and Communities First Initiative, would amend the state constitution to change 1978’s Prop 13 school-funding formula. If approved, Prop 15 would hike taxes on larger businesses (valued above $3 million) by taxing them at their fair-market value, not their value at the time of purchase. The revenue boost would fund schools and other public services around the state.

Here are highlights of what each candidate said regarding those proposals (edited for clarity and brevity). The responses are listed in numerical order by district, and then alphabetically by candidate within each district.

MEASURE O, PROP 15

District 2

Mike Crowley: “I am not in support of both of them. I would love for them to happen, (but) here’s the problem: With Measure O, let’s look at what happened to Measure J, let’s look at what happened to Measure TT – there has to be a purpose. It has to be rewritten. We’re going through 11 percent unemployment right now in Pasadena. We are coming out of a pandemic. Yes, they need this (money). (But) the district needs to rewrite this, they need to say exactly how they’re going to take my kids’ future away … Next, Proposition 15 … it’s going to pass and it’s going to get fought by Howard Jarvis. I think everything needs to be rewritten for me to be supportive of it.’’

Wayne Hammack: “I strongly support Measure O. Anyone who has kids in the schools recognizes the need for facilities. We have to pass Measure O. I understand some of the concerns about Measure TT. Hopefully we have a board that is going to follow that and a citizens’ oversight committee that’s going to follow that. Prop 15 has not been an easy one. I’ve come full circle on this, I’ve talked to a lot of people since I’ve been campaigning. I do not support Prop 15. I don’t believe for a second that it’s only going to affect large corporations – it will be passed down. … A lot of our small businesses, drive around town, they’ve been hammered. If we weren’t coming out of this pandemic … I might feel differently. But small businesses have been hammered. It’s going to get passed down. I understand it doesn’t apply to residential stuff, but it’s going to apply to consumers, and it’s going to apply to our employees because there are either going to be employee cuts or prices are going to go up, and I think that’s a big problem.’’

Jennifer Hall Lee: “I support both. And I am a huge proponent of Prop 15. Prop 13 has been a revenue loss for us. We were up at the top with our public schools, we are no longer. I like Prop 15 because it protects homeowners. … Right now, homeowners are shouldering the large part of our tax revenue, it’s something like 79 percent. Commercial real-estate holders are shouldering like 30 percent. How is this fair? It’s not, and it hurts our communities and it hurts our schools. I hope Prop 15 passes because it’s absolutely the right thing to do.’’  

District 4

Patrick Cahalan: “Very briefly, yes, I support both measures. On Prop 15, I just want to mention – a lot of people believe that California has a particularly large government, but when you break down the cost of our government per capita, we’re right in the middle of the pack, were about 23rd in the nation as of two years ago when I ran the formal numbers. We are behind a number of states that consider themselves conservative states. …. There’s plenty of room in the California economy for more taxes to support education. On Measure O … everyone that’s a parent in this district knows their school needs improvement. If we don’t pass these bonds, we don’t get the authority to issue them. We will not issue them all tomorrow, so the impact will not be held on the taxpayer right away.’’

Scott Harden: “Regarding Measure O, I support it. I’m a little worried about our priorities in terms of what we’re going to use that bond money to pay for. … One of the first things I’ll do as a board member is help facilitate a 10-year community-led vision and success road map. If we can get that done, if we can start thinking about our long-term future, then bond money can be spent with full support of the community knowing we’re not fighting each other for money, which happened in the (Measure) TT process, which was unfortunate. I’m enthusiastically in support of Prop 15, however, because it’s more money that we can use now to build us up no matter what we do. I’m a big proponent of Prop 15. I’m a soft proponent, I guess you could say, of Measure O.’’

District 6

Milena Albert: “My concern about Measure O is that it’s very ambitious as far as the amount that we’re going after, and my worry is that by asking for too much we might not get anything at all. So that would be the only concern I have with that. And I do agree that (if Measure O passes) we will be in the position to make the right decision, because God knows, our facilities need a lot of work done. The fact that we are not in compliance with ADA (the Americans With Disabilities Act), and the fact that some of the schools don’t even have wheelchair access in today’s measures. And I definitely support Prop (15) as well. I do believe that money will go a long way in what we need now.’’

Crystal Czubernat: “I support both. I really want to talk about Prop 15. I think now more than ever is the time for us to move forward with this proposition. … Given the prospective deficits we’re going to be facing in the next several years, it will give us the financial means to create a vision and a strategy collectively, as a school district, to be able to make a significant shift for our school district moving forward for generations to come.’’

Tina Wu Fredricks: “I support both Measure O and Prop 15. Measure O will help us upgrade our technological infrastructure. If you want to compete against private schools and get a 21st Century education, well, there’s just one way to do it. And also making sure our buildings are safe and making sure we have efficient buildings that will save us money. Of course, I worked on getting Prop 15 on the ballot, so I am overwhelmingly supporting Prop 15. And it’s actually only going to affect the large corporations that have been not paying their fair share of taxes. This will be a historic legislation, and this is a long time coming, and we will go back to being world-class schools by investing in our schools.’’

Priscilla Hernandez: “I definitely am a proponent for Measure O. It brings us important and vital funding to our education system. I’m a bit hesitant on Prop 15 – I have a little different lens, I think, given that I run an organization and I know the impacts that, sometimes, trickle-down effects have. … So I would be concerned on how it would impact small businesses and how that would be carried over from big businesses to small businesses, who in turn provide jobs to our parents and to our community.’’

MORE MONEY MATTERS

Candidates also were asked a more general question regarding the PUSD’s financial future – “How will you ensure the financial health of the district going forward.” Here are highlights of their responses (also edited for clarity and brevity):

District 2

Mike Crowley: “We could collectively work together … and try and figure out what we can do as a community moving forward and using our elected officials and try and figure out how we can go to our elected officials and higher-ups. … We must figure out the way, and I believe I can do this because of relationships that I do have with people with funding, with people that can make better use of the property. Being a former realtor, I know we can do better with some of this excess land.’’

Wayne Hammack: (Regarding the PUSD’s enrollment decline), “It’s going to be very difficult, it’s going to be very challenging. First thing is, we need to get active advocating that our kids come back. … Our district is being squeezed from both ends as families have to move out and as wealthier families are able to go to private schools. So we have to be active on the recruiting front.’’

Jennifer Hall Lee: “The bottom line is, California does not fund schools the way other states do. They simply don’t. We used to be up near the top, and now we are down near the bottom. We have lost revenue since Prop 13. And we’re going to have to fight for more revenue from the state and from the federal government.’’

District 4

Patrick Cahalan: “Advocacy is important. … We’ve done this, I’ve done a trip to Sacramento to advocate with our legislative branch. I’ve advocated strongly with Sen. Anthony Portantino, which I believe has had some impact.’’

Scott Harden: “When we come into tough times with our budget, we have to have community consensus towards what our priorities are. I want to close achievement gaps – I think we haven’t moved that needle for a long time, and we need to get after the problem. We need to improve special ed … and we need more signature programs and pathways, but we need money for those priorities. But I’m not an ideologue – I want what the community wants.’’

Harden also called for “a 10-year road map. I call it the 10-year vision of success road map. The first thing I’ll do and call for as a board member so that we can come together as a community and identify our priorities.’’

District 6

Milena Albert: “The most important thing we can do in terms of ensuring that we have the money is improving schools – improving schools so … students that are currently in school will not move out of the district to go somewhere else, but also new families will come in. … In order for us to bring in those families … we need to establish that the Pasadena Unified School District is a rival of any private school. And that will bring the money in for our budget.’’

Crystal Czubernat: “Quite frankly, this is why I’m running, and this is my area of expertise. The entire country, let alone the state of California, is going to be lobbying the state for money. … So, it’s going to be up to us to improve our schools and create schools that families want to send their students to.’’

The keys to that, she said, are, “one, more and better communication between teachers and parents and two, more academic rigor and college prep. That’s just one way, quickly, we can start to turn around, rebrand, remarket what our schools are offering and create PUSD as one of the top schools in our state, that every family wouldn’t pass the chance up to send their kids to.’’

Tina Wu Fredricks: “We have to lean on our elected officials. I will use my advocacy experience over the years to organize parents, who already know how to organize fund-raisers. (She would look to) channel all that energy, that organizing power, and we will go in the offices of our elected officials and lean on them, and ask them, ‘Are you going to support our children?’ We have to ask our community for that support. I will advocate for increased funding at the state and federal level, and we all should be voting yes on Prop 15 that will bring billions of dollars to our public schools. That way we won’t have to make that difficult decision to close schools and cut teachers.’’

Priscilla Hernandez: “The next few years are going to be tough. … We have to prepare for tough financial times. … It’s not going to be a situation that one person alone or one board member alone can fix. It’s going to take a collective effort by not only the board but all of us putting our minds together on how are we going to face, in upcoming years, the best methods other than buckling our belts in regards to budget. … How do we create other opportunities – public-private partnerships, what resources are around us. And also advocating and lobbying our state government to bring more funding in.’’

(For in-depth biographical information on each candidate, as well as details about their particular campaign points, go to Pasadena Now’s “Meet the PUSD Candidates,” here (hyperlink below).

https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/meet-the-pusd-board-of-education-candidates/