Hearing on Censure of PUSD Board Member Tuesday

At Tuesday night's meeting Pasadena Unified School Board will decide whether to censure one of their members Tuesday night over comments he made about a prospective superintendent candidate on local news sites and Facebook.

The motion to initiate a censure hearing for board member Scott Phelps was introduced at the last PUSD board meeting by board members Elizabeth Pomeroy and Ed Honowitz.

The motion of censure states that Phelps made "disparaging comments about a superintendent candidate" on the Pasadena Star-News website and on Facebook.

In the comment, which can be viewed here, Phelps said the candidate, Thelma Melendez, the assistant secretary Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, would be "disastarous" and said she had been "unimpressive" when previously serving in a position at PUSD.

He said there was "high-level lobbying" to hire Melendez, and suggested that somebody had lobbied board president Renatta Cooper to hire her. 

The board voted 4-2 on Oct. 18 to initiate the proceedings, with Phelps and Kim Kenne voting against the motion.

The candidate who Phelps wrote about later withdrew her candidacy to be the next superintendent.  The board eventually hired current superintendent Jon Gundry.

The board will need a two-thirds vote to pass the censure motion.  The hearing will be held at 8:30 p.m. at the district headquarters at 351 S. Hudson Avenue.  The full censure motion is posted to the right of this article.