Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, September 28, 2019

3

Mountain Views-News Saturday, September 28, 2019 


PUSD VOTES 
TO CLOSE 
ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOLS


By Dean Lee

 The Pasadena Unified School 
District Board voted 4 to 3 Thursday 
night to permanently close three 
elementary schools Roosevelt, 
Franklin and Jefferson.

 The move came as officials said there 
has been shrinking enrollment. In 
the past two years, PUSD had an 
average decline of 400 students. 

 “The schools that are on this list, 
whether they are closed or not, are 
not on this list because they are bad 
places to be, because they are not,” 
PUSD board president Lawrence 
Torres said to a crowed room. 
Many were holding protest signs to 
save the schools.

 As Torres tried to make his opening 
remarks, in the hallway, a group of 
children chanted “Stop closing our 
schools.”

 Of concern to many parents and 
teachers was that Roosevelt is the 
only elementary school in the 
district built for special needs 
children, “Where are they going to 
go,” they asked.

 
According to PUSD staff, although 
not mandatory, children who attend 
Roosevelt Elementary will be guided 
to Madison Elementary, Franklin 
Elementary students would be 
assisted to Altadena Elementary 
and Jefferson Elementary students 
would be encouraged to attend 
Long Fellow Elementary they said.

 The three PUSD Board members 
that voted against the resolution 
were Kimberly Kenne, Michelle 
Bailey and Patrick Cahalan.

 Pasadena City Councilmember 
Victor Gordo made a plea that they 
postpone any decision calling for a 
more transparent process.

 Torres said that the school closings 
had been a, very long time ongoing 
conversation but said they are 
trapped by implementing a self-
imposed October deadline. He 
said open enrollment starts in 
November.

 In a statement, Interim 
Superintendent David Verdugo, 
wrote “These difficult decisions 
lay a strong and stable foundation 
for the long-term future of our 
students, families, schools, and 
our entire Pasadena Unified 
community. Our purpose remains 
clear: improving the academic and 
support environment for students 
today and in the future.”

 The board is set next month to 
also start looking at consolidating 
middle and high schools.

A $750 Million Pledge 
to Caltech will Support 
Environmental Research

Local Area 
News Briefs

 Shooting Reported in 
Northwest Pasadena 

 
At press time, Pasadena police were 
on the scene Friday of a man wounded 
during a shooting. It was not clear if 
the shooter still remained at large 
although police were searching for 
several suspects at the time.

 Police had received a call of shots 
fired shortly before 10 a.m. in the 
area of Hammond Street and Sunset 
Avenue. 

 According to officers the suspect 
was in a group before fleeing. The 
unidentified victim, shot in the lower 
body, had been taken to a nearby 
hospital. 

 An investigation was ongoing, 
anyone with information should call 
police at (626) 744-4501. 

Philanthropists and 
entrepreneurs Stewart and 
Lynda Resnick, owners of 
The Wonderful Company, 
announced last week an 
unprecedented $750 million 
pledge to Caltech to support 
cutting-edge research into the 
most pressing challenges in 
environmental sustainability. 
The commitment, part of 
Caltech’s Break Through 
campaign, is the largest ever for 
environmental sustainability 
research, the largest in Caltech’s 
history, and the second-
largest gift to a U.S. academic 
institution.

 “In order to comprehensively 
manage the climate crisis, we 
need breakthrough innovations, 
the kind that will only be 
possible through significant 
investment in university 
research,” says Stewart Resnick, 
chairman and president of The 
Wonderful Company and a 
senior member of the Caltech 
Board of Trustees. “Science 
and bold creativity must unite 
to address the most pressing 
challenges facing energy, water, 
and sustainability.”

 This transformative 
commitment will support 
Caltech’s investigators as 
they pursue research in solar 
science, climate science, energy, 
biofuels, decomposable plastics, 
water and environmental 
resources, and ecology and 
biosphere engineering. 
Ultimately, this initiative will 
bring together experts from 
across the physical sciences, 
life sciences, and engineering. 
Working in shared facilities 
with access to unparalleled 
instrumentation, Institute 
scientists and engineers will 
advance novel solutions to 
problems that extend beyond 
a single discipline. To ensure 
uninterrupted support for 
this critical area of research 
and for the development of 
breakthrough technologies, a 
permanent endowment will be 
established to fund the work 
of researchers across Caltech’s 
academic divisions and the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, which 
Caltech manages for NASA.

 “Sustainability is the 
challenge of our times,” says 
Caltech president Thomas 
F. Rosenbaum. “Stewart and 
Lynda Resnick’s generosity 
and vision will permit Caltech 
to tackle issues of water, 
energy, food, and waste in 
a world confronting rapid 
climate change. The Resnick 
Sustainability Institute will 
now be able to mount efforts 
at scale, letting researchers 
across campus follow their 
imaginations and translate 
fundamental discovery into 
technologies that dramatically 
advance solutions to society’s 
most pressing problems.”

 “The risks we face due 
to climate change present 
daunting challenges. The 
discoveries, inventions and 
innovations that will be 
spanned by this incredible gift 
will be transformative,” notes 
Steven Chu, co-winner of the 
1997 Nobel Prize in Physics 
and former Secretary of Energy 
under President Barack Obama. 
“The generosity of Lynda and 
Stewart Resnick is a lasting 
commitment for the future 
well-being of our children, our 
grandchildren, and our planet.”

 In recognition of the 
investment, Caltech will 
construct a new 75,000-square-
foot building, to be named the 
Resnick Sustainability Resource 
Center. The center, which will 
serve as the hub for energy 
and sustainability research on 
campus as well as the home of 
state-of-the-art undergraduate 
teaching laboratories, will 
amplify and expand the work 
of the Resnick 


AbilityFirst Festival of Fall 
this Sunday

 Join AbilityFirst Sunday from 5 p.m. to 
8 p.m. for their 45th annual Festival of 
Fall – A Gourmet Food and Drink event, 
bringing top restaurants, culinary talent 
and cocktails together. The event will be set 
in the gardens of the historic Laurabelle A. 
Robinson House in Pasadena and hosted 
by Phaedra and Mark Ledbetter.

 This year’s event will feature a unique, 
live chef experience and a line up of more 
than 25 top restaurants and beverage 
companies. The festival is presented with 
generous support from dozens of gourmet 
specialties and sponsors. Emceed by Jeff 
Michael of CBS2 with live music, auctions 
featuring luxury trips and much more. 

 Founded in 1926 by a group of 
businessmen from the Los Angeles Rotary 
Club to help children affected by the pre-
vaccine polio epidemic, today, AbilityFirst 
is a nonprofit advocate for disability rights 
helping all developmental disabilities and 
their families.

 For more information or buy tickets visit: 
abilityfirst.org or call 626-396-1010.

OFFICIALS HOLD BERKSHIRE CREEK GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY

 Mayor Terry Tornek and Vice Mayor Tyron Hampton led a 
groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the Berkshire Creek 
Restoration Project –a quiet little canyon in the southwest part 
of Hahamongna Watershed Park along Oak Grove Drive near 
JPL.

 The project is an urban streams restoration program that will 
upgrade habitat, improve public safety, and restore a more 
natural hydrology to Berkshire Creek, which flows into the 
Arroyo Seco just north of Devil’s Gate Dam. The Arroyo Seco 
Foundation, the project’s cosponsor with the City of Pasadena 
Public Works Department, will grow most the plants for the 
habitat restoration component in nearby Hahamongna Native 
Plant Nursery. 

 The project construction is expected to be completed by the 
end of the year

 For more information visit: arroyoseco.org/berkshirecreek.

 
Walter Cailleteau, DVM Free Exam!
927 N. Michillinda Ave. For New Clients 
Pasadena, CA 91107 Bring this coupon to save! 
(626) 351-8863
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