By Gaylaird Christopher
Education is an important key indicator in predicting our success as a society. Additionally, it encompasses a valuable legacy each generation can pass on to the next. The generosity of our Pasadena community in approving over $500M in expenditures on new and renovated school buildings reflects this commitment.
Once again our community’s generosity is being misused. The current fiscal mismanagement follows the several documented failings of Measure Y:
Pasadena USD accumulated some of our state’s highest project soft costs and one of the lowest percentages of built brick-and-mortar improvements. Cost over-runs were frequent. Millions of dollars in facilities’ improvements to our schools were turned over to charter organizations, following project completions.
Cost over-runs and time delays are again prominent features in PUSD’s bond projects. We were assured by the Board that Measure TT would avoid the mistakes experienced in Measure Y. Unfortunately these factors have not been avoided. In some cases, the situation is now worse.
As a Pasadena taxpayer and business owner — and supporter of both bond measures — I have a philosophical and personal investment in the program’s success. I am currently paying nearly the same amount annually in taxes to support these bond measures, as I paid for my daughters’ yearly tuition at one of our best state universities.
Five and a half years after Measure TT’s passage, much of the money remains unspent, while funds continue to be allocated to questionable projects A previous Chief Finance and Operations Officer, who left the District in December 2010, over-estimated the funding available by approximately $100M, approving projects for construction without sufficient monies. This led the replacement facilities staff to work diligently with school site planning committees, reducing overall project funding at each site by approximately 20 percent. However, “favorite projects” were saved from the budget cuts. When community members mobilized, funding was even increased to make up for lack of program oversight and District supervision. The contract was terminated for the District’s lead project manager hired to clean up this mess, and the Assistant Superintendent of Facilities was on paid administrative leave for many months, with no public explanation of the rationale behind these decisions.
Dr. John Pappalardo, Asst. Supt. of Business, has taken on leadership of the Facilities program with a skeleton crew of contract project managers. This added work load is unfair at best. It can only engender poor decision-making and continued wasting of funds.
I close with a few questions that must be answered by PUSD leadership – and transparently shared with our community – if this wayward program is ever to get back on track:
- Why did PUSD build two new middle schools, while closing five schools with plenty of space for students in existing schools?
- Why would the District tear down Sierra Madre School more than three years before beginning construction on the new replacement school? Why is the new middle school being built for 600 students, when enrollment last year was only 400 students?
- Why did the District approve both budget and program overruns that were not included in the original Facilities Plan used to structure our General Obligation bond?
- Why are we throwing away a $1M set of plans for the Marshall High School Gymnasium and asking a contractor to design/build the project after four years of planning?
- Why did the District pay more than $1M in fees to design a new Central Kitchen, then cancel the project after significant expenditures in both fees and construction of kitchen improvements across the District?
- Why did we build football stadiums before making classrooms improvements?
- Why does PUSD’s Facilities Master Plan include $40M in funding from the state for Career Technical Education programs, yet the District never submitted any applications for funding approval? Neighboring districts have received millions of dollars for career technical education.
- Why are we spending $60 million in improvements ($50,000 per student) at the Blair campus?
- Why are we spending $40 million in improvements ($30,000 per student) at the McKinley campus?
- Why did the District spend millions of dollars improving Loma Alta and Franklin Elementary Schools only months before they were closed and turned over to charter and private school entities?
- Why have hundreds of thousands in additional fees been paid to redesign projects that exceeded their original contractual budgets?
- Why has PUSD spent only 20 percent of the funds allocated in Measure Z and Measure TT in the northwest region, when 60 percent of the students attending PUSD schools live in northwest Pasadena and Altadena?
Certainly challenges, disputes and controversies can be expected during the completion of any multi-million dollar construction program. Yet I find it unacceptable that these challenges continue to repeat themselves in this current bond program, despite the many assurances that Measure TT would be better managed.
Though District administrators and the School Board speak often of progress and change, many of our tax dollars are lost in the maze of wasteful bureaucracy rather than being spent for the good purpose for which they were collected – the education of our students in contemporary learning environments. We still have the financial resources to accomplish this, despite mismanagement and overspending. To ensure a different result, we must expect a different course of action from PUSD leadership. Let’s ask for that new course now – and stay invested in its successful completion.
Mr. Christopher, AIA
Pasadena resident and business owner, may be contacted at gaylairdc@sbcglobal.net
