Tina Wu Fredericks Announces School Board Re-Election Run

Tina Wu Fredericks, elected to the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education in 2020 to represent District 6 (the Pasadena Hastings Ranch neighborhood, East Pasadena, and Sierra Madre), announced her candidacy for re-election in the November 2024 School Board race.

Fredericks kicked off her campaign with a significant endorsement from the United Teachers of Pasadena, the bargaining unit for the 800 teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, psychologists, and speech-language pathologists of Pasadena Unified School District.

“I am deeply humbled to be the first Board member to receive an early endorsement from Pasadena Unified School District teachers. I will honor their trust in me by continuing to fight for investment in the classroom so that our students get the resources they need for success in college and career.”

Fredericks is currently Pasadena Unified School District Board Clerk, Pasadena Unified School District Chair of the Facilities and Capital Projects Committee, and member of the 5-Star Education Coalition, composed of board members and superintendents from the Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, and South Pasadena school districts.

She has served as Pasadena Unified School District Chair of the Legislative Advocacy Committee and as a member of the Pasadena Unified School District Finance Task Force and Student Safety & School Climate Committee.

She is presently in her second term as President of the Los Angeles County School Trustees Association, a coalition of trustees from K-12 and community college districts across the county.

Fredericks said she is the only Pasadena Unified School District Board member who has taught elementary, middle, and high school in California K-12 public schools. “As a teacher, I learned that there are so many challenges that get in the way of teaching. Unfortunately, those challenges have only worsened over the years. To demand more from teachers and staff to support students with more specialized and diverse needs without giving them sufficient resources simply won’t produce the academic outcomes we want for our students.”

In 2023, Fredericks joined a special contingent of approximately 300 school trustees from K-12 California school districts who traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with congressional representatives about a number of issues, including increasing funding for the growing special education student population; investing in training and recruitment programs to address the educator shortage crisis; increasing funding for student mental health prevention and intervention programs; and increasing broadband access to low-income families.

Says Fredericks, “Delivering the personal stories from our communities to the Capitol is very powerful. Some of our students have not yet recovered academically or emotionally since the pandemic, which is why increasing investment in public education is necessary, especially in special education.”

Fredericks said she plans to again join the annual federal advocacy trip in April 2024, organized by the California School Board Association, to address the critical issues affecting California’s 6 million K-12 students.

As part of African-American Parent Council Math Power Hour, Fredericks said she has tutored Pasadena Unified School District second graders at McKinley Elementary School to improve math achievement. She also volunteers in greening projects for Amigos De Los Rios at schools across the district.

Fredericks was the principal author and sponsor for multiple Board resolutions, including “Expansion of Immersive Outdoor Learning Opportunities,” “Safe Storage of Firearms for the Prevention of Gun Violence,” and “Expanding Access to School Board Public Meetings By Providing In-person and Remote Participation.”

Fredericks is a mother of two daughters, one, who is currently an eighth-grader at Pasadena Unified School District Octavia E. Butler Magnet, and another, who enrolled at California State Los Angeles Early Entrance Program at age 13 after attending Willard International Baccalaureate Elementary School, Blair International Baccalaureate Middle School, and McKinley Middle School and Math Academy in the Pasadena Unified School District District.

Fredericks has lived with her husband and two daughters in Pasadena since 2010 and has served on the Willard International Baccalaureate Elementary PTA Board as Vice President, Treasurer, and Legislative Advocate. She also currently serves on the Rose City High School PTSA Bylaws Committee.