School Board Hears Results of Survey Conducted For Direction on Pasadena Unified’s Facilities Master Plan

At Thursday’s meeting the Pasadena Unified School District Board received and discussed updates on the draft Facilities Master Plan, which will define and prioritize the district’s facilities needs for the next 10 years.

Many of the buildings in PUSD are historic and some were built 100 years ago or more. Recognizing that school facilities may need changes to accommodate new models of learning, serve the needs of families to the area, and ensure that they adhere to the latest safety standards, PUSD undertook a Facilities Master Plan process. 

Kevin Fleming from DLR group, lead architect on the District’s master plan, reported that DLR has completed its facility condition assessments of PUSD school sites. The assessment defines the condition of PUSD facilities as well as what it may cost in the future to maintain them.

DLR did campus tours with PUSD principals and some key members to understand what the needs are, said Fleming.

Fleming also said DLR has also completed the historic assessment and the reports on there include what to do with historic buildings from the recommendations from the various agencies.

Over the recent months, DLR conducted virtual community meetings with a total of 359 participants. It also created a digital survey that is still up on PUSD website. Over 500 participated in the digital survey. 

According to Fleming, in the survey, members of the community stressed the need to modernize existing facilities to accommodate more flexible learning options, replace aging utility infrastructure, improve campus security, provide shade structures over playground equipment, create outdoor learning environments, provide appropriate spaces for specialized programs, provide technology upgrades to integrate current devised into the learning environment.

According to PUSD staff, the final report as regards the Facilities Master Plan will be submitted to the board for approval in January. 

Aside from the Facilities Master Plan an Educational Master Plan for PUSD is also underway. 

According to Fleming, a 32-member committee is working on the Educational Master Plan, which is anticipated to be completed in February. 

“We’re hoping that will help drive decisions of interior modifications to buildings to accomplish what that education plan wants to accomplish,” Fleming remarked. 

For more information about the Facilities Master Plan, visit: https://www.pusdplan.org

To participate in the survey, click the link below:
https://dlrgroup.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0VSaRkFSDMwWAIe