Pasadena Unified receives positive certification from LA County on budget report

The Los Angeles County Office of Education has awarded the Pasadena Unified School District a positive certification on its recently submitted first interim report.

In December, PUSD submitted the report to the county oversight agency, which districts are required to submit and that captures a district’s financial position up to Oct. 31.

“Our analysis of the data provided indicates that the District should be able to meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and subsequent two fiscal years,” LACOE Financial Advisory Services Officer Steven Choi wrote in a letter to PUSD.

Prior to approving the next fiscal year budget, PUSD will be submitting a second interim report in March. In its letter, LACOE requested that PUSD include an updated fiscal stabilization plan with its second interim report due on March 16.

“I am confident that the PUSD Board of Education will implement the Fiscal Stabilization Plan and maintain a positive certification through the Second Interim,” PUSD Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said in a statement. “By consistently executing the critical actions outlined in this plan, we ensure fiscal stability and, most importantly, create tangible benefits for our students.”

It wasn’t all good news for PUSD in LACOE’s letter. The county agency continued to project an operating deficit for PUSD in the unrestricted general fund.

“This projected deficit spending reflects budgetary pressures but also the potential impact of extraordinary costs, including wildfire response expenditures,” the letter read.

PUSD finds itself in financial trouble due to a structural deficit, declining enrollment, rising costs and uncertainty in federal funding.

LACOE officials attended PUSD Board of Education meetings last fall with dire warnings of what a negative certification could mean. The district’s precarious financial position meant that it was required to submit a fiscal stabilization plan along with the first interim report.

In the worst case scenario, a lack of action by the district to address its ongoing deficit could have resulted in LACOE installing a fiscal expert, fiscal advisor or eventually a county administrator who would essentially run the district.

The fiscal stabilization plan reflected $24.5 million in cuts that the Board of Education approved in November that will be reflected in the 2026-27 fiscal year budget. In a 4-3 vote, trustees approved cuts to school-based services, the central office and contracts.

PUSD’s Board of Education will meet for the first in 2026 Thursday, Jan. 22, at 5 p.m.