The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education will move to formally end its contract with the consultant that led its now-halted school-consolidation effort when it meets in a special session Thursday, June 11, the same night it opens a required public hearing on a 2026-27 budget that must close a projected shortfall of $30 million to $35 million.
The termination of the district’s agreement with Total School Solutions appears on the board’s consent calendar, a block of items typically approved together without separate debate. The firm had been hired under a contract not to exceed $233,300 to run a state-mandated equity analysis identifying schools for possible closure or merger.
On May 28, the board rejected that $230,000 analysis, which had placed Blair, Thurgood Marshall, Don Benito, McKinley, Webster and Norma Coombs on a potential closure or merger list.
The board’s legal advisor told trustees that any future closure effort would have to begin again with a new analysis, and no school is closing under the current process.
A 33-member advisory committee, chosen from more than 150 applicants, had voted May 11 not to recommend any of the closure scenarios it was asked to evaluate.
Ending the contract “without cause” allows the district to sever the relationship without assigning fault. The move follows public controversy over how the consolidation process began.
Public records describe a “Consolidation 2027” proposal that Board President Tina Fredericks drafted privately in the fall of 2025, along with communications among trustees and consultant representatives before the firm was formally retained.
Critics allege the contacts amounted to serial communications in violation of California’s Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open-meetings law.
The four trustees involved — Fredericks, Scott Harden, Kimberly Kenne and Yarma Velázquez — have denied coordinating to steer the contract or the closures.
At the May 28 meeting, recall organizers served Fredericks and Harden with notices of intent to circulate recall petitions in reaction to the disclosures.
The budget hearing Thursday may prove equally consequential.
District projections attribute the shortfall to declining enrollment, rising costs, the expiration of one-time pandemic relief funds and unbudgeted expenses from the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which destroyed or severely damaged five district schools in Altadena.
The district has warned the gap could widen to a $71 million deficit by 2027-28 if left unaddressed.
To begin closing the gap, the board on Feb. 26 approved eliminating 161.35 full-time-equivalent certificated positions and 251 classified positions for 2026-27, among the largest workforce reductions in district history.
A draft budget presentation is expected to incorporate assumptions from the governor’s May revision, enrollment and funding projections, and the district’s multiyear projection. California districts must adopt a budget by July 1, with a public hearing beforehand.
The board will also hold a public hearing on the 2026-27 Local Control and Accountability Plan, the state-required document linking funding to student-outcome goals, which is adopted alongside the budget. Presentations on the district’s 2026-27 athletics program and on staffing are also scheduled.
Three resolutions on the consent calendar set a general election for Nov. 3, consolidated with the statewide ballot, for board seats in sub-districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. Resolution 2880 orders the election, Resolution 2883 calls and gives notice of it, and Resolution 2885 sets the rules for candidate statements. Those seats are held by Kenne, Michelle Richardson Bailey, Patrice Marshall McKenzie and Velázquez. Kenne and Velázquez are among the four trustees named in the Brown Act allegations; Fredericks and Harden, whose seats are not on the 2026 ballot, face the recall effort instead.
The meeting is called to order at 5 p.m. and recesses to closed session at 5:10 p.m. for the superintendent’s performance evaluation, with the open session at 7 p.m. in the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room, Room 236, at 351 S. Hudson Ave. Because it is a special meeting, public comment is limited to agenda items. Speakers are allotted up to three minutes. Written comments may be emailed to publiccomment@pusd.us, marked “Public Comment.”
The full agenda is posted at www.BoardMeetings.info.
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