By Eric Licas
The Review
Educators, students and parents approaching the end of the school year celebrated the year’s highlights while bracing for a financially challenging road ahead for the South Pasadena Unified School District at a meeting of its Board of Education on May 14.
The meeting took place just weeks ahead of the last day of instruction on June 5 at South Pasadena High School. It featured a State of the School address from the campus’ associated student body commissioner general, Olivia Alfonso.
Her speech noted athletic accomplishments such as the football team securing its first Rio Hondo League title since 1976 and the girls’ basketball team finishing undefeated in league play. She also pointed out a gold medal awarded to the Tiger Newspaper by Columbia University, and recalled numerous campus events such as color day, when students and staff donned orange and black costumes.
“Traditions like these unify the grades together as one body of students as we navigate our high school lives,” Alfonso said. “The freshman and sophomores are finding their bearings with the campus. The juniors are taking on their first AP classes, and the seniors are banding together during college applications.”
Seniors have received letters of acceptance from UC Berkeley, UCLA, New York University, the University of Oregon and Northeastern University, Alfonso said. Sprinter Mia Holden and distance runner Keeran Murray have also committed to UCLA and Yale, respectively. Members of the girls’ volleyball team will continue their athletic careers at Yale, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, Colby College, Occidental College and Pasadena City College.
Meanwhile, administrators are already in the process of preparing for the next school year, Superintendent Geoff Yantz said. That includes several maintenance and upgrade projects such as new solar panels and air conditioning units over the summer.
That work will require the closure of some parts of some campuses, said Dave Lubs, assistant superintendent of business services. Those areas include the parking lots of the high school and South Pasadena Middle School, as well as the playing fields of the latter and Monterey Hills Elementary. Details and updates have been shared on the district’s messaging platform.
The campus upgrades are funded by bond revenue from Measure SP and have no impact on the district’s general fund. Otherwise, in the face of deficits at the state and local level, the projects would not have been possible, Lubs said.
“While the financial outlook is bleak with regard to the general fund, the good news is South Pasadena funds are separate from our general fund,” he said.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes billions in cuts in the latest revision of California’s budget in hopes of shoring up losses at the state level, SPUSD officials expect to close this year’s books with a $2 million deficit, Yantz said.
The superintendent reiterated that the district will be able to avoid layoffs in the immediate future, but officials will be evaluating every vacated position to decide whether they can afford to refill it. And they will have to dip into their reserves to stay afloat.
“There’s going to be a lot of changes,” Yantz said. “The good news is we have reserves to sustain some of the impact. But long term, it’s going to be some difficult times ahead.”
First published in the May 24 print issue of the South Pasadena Review.
