Pasadena School Board Approves Commission’s Final Redistricting Map

The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Board of Education on Thursday voted 4-2 to approve the Redistricting Commission’s final map that outlines the boundaries for each voting district for the next decade.

Voting for Resolution 2648, which would revise the city’s geographic subdistrict map for the election of board members were board members Elizabeth Pomeroy, Scott Phelps, Jennifer Hall Lee and Tina Fredericks.

Board members Kimberly Kenne and Patrick Cahalan voted against the resolution.

The newly-approved redistricting map will now be submitted to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization for approval.

At the hearing, Kenne and Cahalan reiterated their concerns about the process of creating the new map.

“I become a little concerned about the map that we made that is extremely impactful and moves a large number of people,” Kenne said. “This is a lot of change for a map that didn’t have a robust process and didn’t have a lot of public input.”

“I’ve been very dissatisfied with this process and that is not a knock on anyone who has been engaged in it but I don’t think it serves the district well and I think it’s upon us to try and change it,” Cahalan said.

The map, which was received by the PUSD Board last February 10, establishes District 1 with a total population of 29,249, District 2 with a population of 29,352, District 3 with a population of 29,277, District 4 with a population of 29,243, District 5 with a population of 29,274, District 6 with a population of 28,988 and District 7 with a population of 29,457.

During a previous board meeting, Kenne pointed out that the map will move almost 20,000 residents from one district to another. Kenne also said the changes to the map could affect communities of interests and disenfranchise thousands of voters.

The nine-member Redistricting Commission established on July 29, 2021, was given the directive to balance the populations among the existing districts within PUSD.

The directive was made in compliance with Education Code section 5019.5 and Section 13 of Article VII of the Charter which require the Board to update its geographic sub-district boundaries every 10 years to ensure that voting districts contain roughly the same number of people.

The Redistricting Commission met twice per month from August to February and held four public hearings to gather public input before it came up with a recommendation to the board.