The dissatisfaction some residents feel with the Pasadena Unified School District was reflected at the ballot box with the defeat of the Measure CC two weeks ago, and in Altadena, a group of citizens has long been advocating for secession from the PUSD.
Called Altadenans for Quality Education (AQE), the group has passed its goal of 7,000 signatures on a petition to require the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) to conduct a feasibility study on carving out an Altadena Unified School District from the PUSD, which currently serves Altadena children. More than 25% of Altadena voters have signed the petition.
In an effort to create dialog among interested parties, AQE is holding a series of meetups at local coffee shops. The next one is scheduled for May 20th at The Coffee Gallery on Lake Avenue.
The first meetup had about half a dozen attendees, according to Bruce Wasson, organizer. He commented to Examiner on Sunday, "Part of what we learned by collecting over 7,000 signatures is the good nature of our fellow Altadenans, their high interest in doing the right thing, and their desire to learn more about what that might be. We also learned how extraordinarily busy most of them are. So for this reason we don't expect much attention to be paid to this pursuit until after the signatures have been turned in.
"If by holding these meetings we help a few more people look past their anger at PUSD and turn their gaze instead to what works to close the achievement gap and bring all students onto the road to success in college in a few short years, then these meetings will have been a success."
Wasson says the meetups will discuss "the top three things all schools serving communities like ours must do to close the achievement gap quickly and why it is unreasonable to expect these three to happen in PUSD."
He says the only reason to form an AUSD is to ensure all the community's children are successfully educated.
"The cost of not doing so will be our continued 50% graduation rate and 8th grade skills on average among our demographic majority's high school graduates for many years to come," he says.
Meeting info:
Altadena Schools Meetup
Thursday, May 20, 7:00 p.m.
The Coffee Gallery back room
2029 Lake Ave. , Altadena
RSVP on the Meetup webpage
Comments
Mr. Wasson was inserted into the Altadena Town Council's effort, began after a full decade of careful study, to divide ourselves from the PUSD, by the angriest of Pasadenan's, Rene Amy, who in interviews with the Star-News claimed he inserted these folks in order to make the Altadena town Council "irrelevant" as to this issue. The Town Council backed out when Supervisor Antonovich declared if there was more than one petition he would not support any effort. Now Mr. Wasson who has collected these signatures under the pretense of separation from Pasadena wants to get rid of Altadenans anger at the PUSD, not seperate and bargain to impliment his own program of reform that has never been tried anywhere?
It seems not only can Altadena not trust the PUSD, we can not trust Mr. Wasson, whose motives are unclear and whose veracity to say the least, is in quite a bit of doubt.
Steve, I would love to talk to you and get your POV. You can email me at lbmonteros@yahoo.com and we can start a dialog. Personally, I have no opinion on the issue but am interested in seeing how it plays out.
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