PUSD Talks More School Closures

About a year after Altadena’s Burbank and Loma Alta elementary schools were closed by the Pasadena Unified School District, PUSD school closures are again being discussed due to a projected $12 million shortfall, according to the Pasadena Star-News.

Declining enrollment has contributed to the financial blow but officials are hoping to avoid drastic measures by possibly adjusting school attendance boundaries, the Star-News reports. Possible options are expected to be presented next spring.

, and the school board was sharply divided over the closures, which also pitted parents at different schools against each other.

At Tuesday’s PUSD Board of Education meeting, board president Renatta Cooper “emphasized that any schools in Altadena should be kept off any closure list, saying the community had already been hit hard,” according to the Star-News.

Cooper voted against closing the two Altadena schools at a meeting in Nov. 2010 where three board members were opposed to the closures and four were in favor.