Invest in PUSD Kids, a grassroots community group of public school supporters, has won a major victory in its three-year long campaign to get the City of Pasadena to embrace its public schools.
Last week, Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck told IIPK that he will propose the following language as part of the updated General Plan: “Pasadena is committed to community planning that supports vibrant educational resources responsive to the broad needs of our diverse community. Quality public schools are a shared community responsibility.”
“We’re thrilled with this news,” said Steve Cole, president of IIPK, whose children attend PUSD school, Longfellow Elementary. “This shows that grassroots efforts can make a difference when we are well-organized and have a compelling message. I think more and more people understand that we can’t have a strong city unless we have strong public schools.”
IIPK has waged a three-year campaign to incorporate that language to the General Plan so that public education will be considered a priority in the City government’s policies. The Pasadena City Council is expected to vote on the revised General Plan in December of this year.
Every city in California has a General Plan, a blueprint to guide the future. Pasadena’s General Plan has long included sections on traffic, land use, housing, historic preservation, and other topics, but not public education. Key provisions of the General Plan are called “guiding principles.”
For the past three years, IIPK has mobilized its members and supporters to attend community meetings and forums sponsored by the City Council and the Planning Department to discuss revisions to the General Plan, urging city officials to add an “eighth guiding principle” that focuses on the importance of high quality public schools as part of a healthy, vibrant city. City staff initially resisted the idea of adding a provision on public schools, but IIPK organized meetings with members of the City Council and with City Manager Beck to make their case. As part of its campaign, IIPK gained the support of a number of key community organizations and civic leaders for the eighth guiding principle.
“This is an important victory, but we still need to make sure that the City Council votes in favor of this language when they approve the General Plan,” said Nora Schneir, IIPK’s treasurer, whose child attends Eliot Middle School in PUSD. “Then we need to keep working to increase the involvement of the wider community – not only the local governments, but also the business community and the many cultural and nonprofit groups in our area – in the public schools.”
Invest in PUSD Kids is a local Pasadena non-profit that was formed in 2007 by PUSD parents to give a greater voice to the public school constituency in Pasadena. IIPK believes that strong public schools are the basis of a strong and prosperous community.
Since its inception, IIPK has grown to have a major influence on local public school politics. It organized an 800 person march in 2008 to draw attention to cuts in public school funding, organized candidate forums for local elections, was the driving force behind the Measure CC school parcel tax campaign, has held numerous conversations with local elected officials to discuss public schools, started the Buy-In PUSD program for local businesses to contribute to public schools, and has been instrumental in the formation of a “Community Schools” pilot program at Madison and Jackson Elementary schools.
