Welcome to Invest In PUSD Kids
We are here:

To give voice to issues of concern to PUSD families and teachers, and to bring those issues to the attention of elected officials on the School Board, the Pasadena City Council, the Sierra Madre City Council, and the Altadena Town Council.
To engage our elected officials and school administration in conversation with the community, and to hold Board, District, and Council members accountable for taking concrete action on issues we've raised.
To give people a chance to share information about what is happening at their schools – common concerns as well as success stories – with people at other schools and the wider community.

Keep "Public" Education in the 8th Guiding Principle!

Invest in PUSD Kids has been leading the charge to place an 8th Guiding Principle in the Pasadena General Plan which would put public education in the forefront
of the Pasadena's vision.

Over the summer the City of Pasadena conducted a comprehensive survey of Pasadena residents about what the new General Plan should contain. 91% of respondents agreed (70% strongly agreed) that public education should be added to the General Plan. However, the city planners continue to copy-edit the proposed language of the principle.

The original proposed language was "A vibrant public education system will be valued and supported as the shared responsibility of our community." First, the phrase "shared responsibility" was removed from the language in the survey. Now we have learned that they want to remove the word "public". This is unacceptable. While we acknowledge the fact that individual families send their children to religious or private schools, the responsibility of the community and the community's elected representatives is to public education and our public school system.

The era of dismissing our public school system is over! We must take a strong stand now! It only takes a moment of your time to contact Mayor Bogaard, City Manager Beck, and your elected city council representative. Please do it today! Then, please foreword this communication to your friends and neighbors and solicit their support as well. Below is the contact information for the city council and city manager. Please contact the Mayor, your city council member, and the city manager to express your strong support for keeping
"PUBLIC EDUCATION" in the 8th Guiding Principle.

Mayor Bill Bogaard Phone (626) 744-4311

Email: bbogaard@cityofpasadena.net

City Manager - Michael Beck Phone (626) 744-4333

Email: mbeck@cityofpasadena.net

District 1 - Jacque Robinson Phone (626) 744-4444

Email: district1@cityofpasadena.net

District 2 - Margaret McAustin Phone (626) 744-4742

Email: mfuller@cityofpasadena.net

District 3 - Chris Holden Phone (626) 744-4738

Email: jmcintyre@cityofpasadena.net

District 4 - Eugene Masuda Phone (626) 744-4740

Email: nsullivan@cityofpasadena.net

District 5 - Victor Gordo Phone (626) 744-4741

Email: vdelacuba@cityofpasadena.net

District 6 - Steve Madison Phone (626) 744-4739

Email: smadison@cityofpasadena.net

District 7 - Terry Tornek Phone (626) 441-4802

Email: ttornek@cityofpasadena.net

IIPK Leaders and Community Members
meet with
Council Member Victor Gordo

Council Member Gordo from Pasadena Council District 5 met with IIPK leaders and community members to discuss city-school partnership efforts and
pledged his support of the 8th Guiding Principle!
Thank you to Council Member Gordo, district director, Vannia De La Cuba,
and all who participated!

IIPK in the News!
8th Guiding Principle Campaign

From Pasadena Now:

School Board to City: Add Education Principle to General Plan

"The city council is going to have to be brave on this issue," said one parents group leader

By VICTORIA MANALO
Published: Thursday, September 29, 2011 | 6:11 AM

The voting lasted less than five seconds amidst cheers from the audience. Voting 7-0, the PUSD Board of Education on Tuesday overwhelmingly adopted Resolution 2,166 urging the Pasadena City Council to add an eighth guiding principle to the city’s General Plan: Education.

With that, supporters of the movement will now shift their focus to the Pasadena City Council.

We must convince them to codify in the city’s priority list that “young children are as important as old buildings,” Peter Dreier, a PUSD parent, told the Board before the vote.

The Resolution recognizes that other nearby communities like, Arcadia, Anaheim, Fullerton and Santa Ana, have included support for public schools in their general plan principles. In Pasadena, the latest survey showed that 91 percent of residents also support the addition of that guiding principle.

Pasadena Unified School District Supt. Jon Gundry opened the discussion by saying “a strong public school system is essential for a strong city.”

Steve Cole, president of a parents group called Invest in PUSD Kids (IIPK), said that “The city council is going to have to be brave on this issue. But they need the community to be brave with them. We need everybody to move forward as a community.”

IIPK has been very active in championing the movement to add public education as a separate General Plan principle.

Former Pasadena Educational Foundation President Maureen Carlson described how she was struck by the amount of support she saw during the meeting as she challenged all present, and the City Government to collaborate in making education one of the city’s main priorities.

“If this [eighth guiding principle] is passed, then Pasadena will become truly a city of learning,” Carlson said.

PUSD Board of Education Vice President Ed Honowitz seemed to set an action plan after the resolution was approved.

“I think this [Resolution)is significant and symbolic,” he said. “But the challenge for us now is for us to really start looking at and adding specific into what we are going to do to build the kind of programs and interactions. One of the things I want to ask Superintendent Gundry and the city manager over the next 30 days, is to start to lay out how this partnership will move forward,” Honowitz said.

He added that the community wants to see PUSD and the city manager to “Move the pieces forward and see actual implementation.” Honowitz said he expect the school board and the city government to meet sooner to establish parameters on collaborating with the new guiding principle.

GET INVOLVED!

IIPK