Pasadena Unified School District

School district in California, USA

3 middle schools
1 K 8 school
2 6 12 schools
2 9 12 schools
1 continuation high school
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| students = 18,410 (2016–2017)

The Pasadena Unified School District was originally established as the San Pasqual District in 1874, approximately 12 years before the incorporation of the City of Pasadena in 1889. The first school was the home of William T. Clapp on 625 South Orange Grove Avenue. In 1878 high school studies were introduced. In 1887 the school moved to the southeast corner of Marengo and Walnut on land donated by Benjamin "Don Benito" Wilson. Wilson Middle School (closed), Don Benito Elementary, and Mount Wilson would be named after him. In 1891 Pasadena passed the High School Provision Bill, leading to the creation of the first Pasadena High School. Rapid growth at the turn of the century led to the school moving to Hill and Colorado in 1912, which at the time was considered far and rural. This location is currently still occupied by what would become Pasadena City College in 1924. By 1914, the school population reached 1529 students.

In 1921 Pasadena's growth rate was so great that the city passed a $750,000 school bond, and four new schools were built, but these were inadequate to keep up with increasing attendance. From 1924 to 1953 the district adopted the 6 4 4 plan, which organized schools into six years of elementary school, four years of junior high school, and four years of high school/junior college. In 1925 Marshall was founded as Marshall Junior High School. It was damaged in the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake and rebuilt by 1940. In 1926 John Muir Technical High School was founded as a new secondary school to serve the growth in Northwest Pasadena and its growing African American population, Altadena, and La Cañada (1920–1963). It was primarily a vocational school. In 1928 the Pasadena Junior College (Pasadena City College) merged with Pasadena High School, and from 1928 to 1953 served the last two years of high school and first two years of junior college. In 1938 John Muir Technical High School declined in enrollment and was renamed Pasadena Junior College West Campus. WWII closed this school in 1942 and transferred to the Army. Muir was reestablished as John Muir Junior College in 1946.

In 1954 Pasadena voted for a new 6 3 2 2 grade plan for both Pasadena High School and Pasadena Junior College. This merged John Muir and Pasadena Junior Colleges, creating John Muir High School and separating Pasadena High School. Pasadena High School continued to share a campus with Pasadena City College until 1960. The new and current PHS at 2925 E. Sierra Madre Boulevard was completed in 1962. As a result of the same vote requiring neighboring communities with high schools to fund Pasadena High School and Pasadena Junior College, Temple City left the new Pasadena High School District in 1954. In 1960 Sierra Madre voted to join the Pasadena Unified School District. In 1960 La Cañada voted to build a new high school and form its own K 12 school district for its growing population. Between 1920 and 1963 La Cañada families attended Muir for high school. In 1960, Pasadena High moved to its current location, north of Victory Park, at the corner of Sierra Madre Boulevard and Washington Boulevard. In 1963 Blair High School was founded in Southwest Pasadena as the last new high school. These new facilities and schools at Pasadena High School, Blair High, and La Cañada High School began the shift away from Pasadena schools. Many families wanted to attend the new school at Blair or leave for La Cañada, rather than stay at Muir, which was deteriorating. West Pasadena at the time attended McKinley Junior High School, and not Washington Middle School (now Octavia Butler Middle School). Altadena and Eliot Middle School in 1960 was still mostly white. In 1966 voters approved a new and separate community college district for Pasadena City College to serve Arcadia, La Cañada, Pasadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, and Temple City. In 1970 Pasadena was ordered to desegregate all of its schools and began forced busing across the district. In 1973 Marshall Junior High School transitioned to fundamental school covering K 12, until 1976 when K 6 were removed. 6th grade returned in 1985.

In January 1970, as supplemented in March 1970, desegregation busing was ordered in the district after the federal court ordered desegregation of the public schools in Pasadena. This was a result of the city demographics of the time, which resulted in a "de facto" segregation, with a large proportion of the African American population attending schools in the northwest area of the city (which was largely African American), and the white students attending schools in the east and southern parts. Before the busing plan was implemented in September 1970, the proportion of white students in public schools reflected the proportion of whites in the community (54 percent and 53 percent, respectively). Shortly after busing began, a significant segment of upper and middle class families who could afford private schooling pulled their children out of the public school system. The result was a boom of private schooling available in the city, and a reduction of state funding for Pasadena public schools as enrollment was reduced. By 2004 Pasadena was home to 63 private schools, which educated one third of all school aged children in the city, and the proportion of white students in the public schools had fallen to 16 percent. One current (as of 2014) board member, Renatta Cooper, has stated that Pasadena has more private schools per capita than any city its size in the United States. In 2012, the district was the subject a 90 minute documentary film titled Go Public. The documentary was filmed by 50 crews following the stories of various people in 28 schools for one day, intended to portray the positive and negative realities in a moderate sized public education system.

In the 2009–2010 school year PUSD served 20,084 students, a drop of approximately 14% since the 2000–2001 school year, when enrollment during the past fifteen years peaked at 23,559 students. As of the 2013–2014 school year, enrollment had dropped to 19,102 students. 1,027 of whom were teachers. In 2009–2010, the district also employed 1,307 classified personnel, 955 of whom were full time, 352 part time.

PUSD is run by a board of education, whose members serve four year terms. Duties of the board include budgeting, approving expenditures, establishing policy, making employment decisions, approving textbooks and courses of study, and approving academic initiatives. Starting in 2013, school board members are elected by geographical districts, which replaces a seat number and at large, with the primary/runoff format, similar to the Pasadena City Council. There are seven geographical districts, Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7, starting with the 2013 elections, while Districts 2, 4, and 6, starting with the 2015 elections, thanks to a ballot measure passage by the voters during the 2012 California Primary election. Voters in the Pasadena Unified School District voted during the June 2018 election to extend the terms of the seven school board members to an additional 19 months, with Districts 2, 4 and 6 effective with the November 2020 election and Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 with the November 2022 election. The elections are replaced with the plurality format instead of the primary/runoff format effective in November 2020. As of December 12, 2022, the members of the PUSD Board of Education are Kimberly Kenne (District 1), Jennifer Hall Lee (District 2), Michelle Richardson Bailey (District 3), Patrick Cahalan (District 4), Patrice Marshall McKenzie (District 5), Tina Wu Fredericks (District 6) and Yarma Velázquez (District 7).