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PASADENA | ALHAMBRA | ALTADENA | ARCADIA | EAGLE ROCK | GLENDALE | LA CAÑADA | MONTROSE | SAN MARINO | SIERRA MADRE | SOUTH PASADENA Senior London Wright realized his love for track and field after it was canceled last year.

Alex Chew, a senior at Marshall Fundamental Secondary School, will attend UC Davis in the fall.

Photo courtesy of Malia Wilson

Seniors reminisce about pandemic-canceled sports

By Matthew Rodriguez Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

After playing volleyball for seven years, 17-year-old Malia Wilson was notified her senior season — essentially the last chance she had to play organized volleyball — was delayed.

“Volleyball was like a second home to me when I was on campus, I played it all the time,” said Wilson, who attended Marshall Fundamental Secondary School. “I definitely miss it.”

Wilson is one of many seniors whose high school sports careers were affected by the pandemic.

High school sports were among the first closures when the pandemic swept the nation. In March 2020, Pasadena School Unified closed its campuses and ended in-person activities. The gyms, fields and tracks were closed to team activities in hopes of slowing the spread.

“It felt demeaning, in a way, because we put all of this hard work in,” said 18-year-old Marshall senior shot putter London Wright, about his junior season’s cancellation.

“It’s just really sad that all the hard work we did to be the best just got put down the drain.”

While there were some hopes for sports to reopen during the fall semester, the surges that occurred during winter ended those dreams of returning to the teams.

However, as cases fell following the winter surge and the arrival of the vaccines, high schools such as Marshall Fundamental Secondary School reinstated their spring sports programs, allowing some seniors to play out their final seasons.

Marshall’s Alex Chew, 18, said he tried to absorb each moment on the field.

“I just enjoy the present moment more when I am on the baseball field with my teammates and the people I care about,” Chew said. “I won’t be able to do that forever. This season would eventually come to an end.”

Most high school athletes do not make it onto a college team. For example, according to the NCAA, out of 482,740 high school baseball players, only 7.5%, about 36,000 athletes, landed a spot on a college roster. For men’s track and field, 4.8% can make the transition to the collegiate level. For women’s volleyball, it’s even lower at 3.9%.

It’s even less likely to receive a scholarship with only 2% of high school athletes awarded some form of an athletics scholarship.

While her peers were able to finish their senior seasons, Wilson saw her senior season canceled. She hopes to continue playing volleyball at her future school, UC Berkeley. Whether it’s playing for a club team or trying out for the Division 1 team, Wilson just wants to get back on the court.

“I’ve been playing volleyball for a very long time. I considered it a part of me,” Wilson said. “Once I lost volleyball, I basically lost a huge part of myself… I really want to be back on the court.”

Phelps: District is in ‘good’ financial shape

By Matthew Rodriguez Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

In the “State of Schools” address, Pasadena School Board President Scott Phelps said the district will resume full in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year.

He added the financial status is “good” for the immediate future.

“The financial state of PUSD is good for the immediate future,” Phelps said. “There have been positive developments in this area in the last year.”

While the district has struggled with finances in the past, Phelps said the district has a “positive certification” standing for at least the next two years, allowing the district to improve its infrastructure in preparation for the first full year of in-person learning since 2019.

“The district has demonstrated that it could meet its current financial obligations, and that of the next two years, in each of its financial reports since March 2019,” Phelps said. “This is what we call a ‘positive certification.’”

According to Phelps, bond rating agencies and the Los Angeles County Office of Education use this certification to determine the financial health of districts.

The board president chalked up the positive news to the passage of Measure O and surplus funding from the state.

Measure O was passed in 2020 and allows the school district to issue over $516 million of school bonds. Measure O, coupled with the district’s recently upgraded bond rating from Moody’s, allows PUSD to work on projects with less financial burden on the taxpayers.

“What this means is that when the district issues bonds, it will receive a better interest rate, which results in more money for projects and less cost to taxpayers,” Phelps said.

In addition to the bonds, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state budget proposal dubbed the “California Comeback Plan” has Phelps optimistic for more funds.

Despite a year derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the state announced it will have a $75.7 billion budget surplus after originally predicting a deficit of over $50 billion. California is also set to receive $26 billion from federal pandemic aid. The “California Comeback Plan” totals about $100 billion, more than most states’ annual spending.

Newsom has proposed $27 billion of the surplus to benefit K-12 schools. According to Phelps, this money will come in a mixture of ongoing, one-time and targeted program funding. The state will also provide a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which increases the district’s ongoing funding per student based on its average daily attendance.

“The COLA will increase our per-student funding by 5.07% which equates to approximately $7.9 million,” Phelps said. “This is welcomed news as it comes on the heels of not receiving any COLA for 2021.”

The district also received millions in COVID-19 relief funds during the 2020 and 2021 school years.

Phelps shared concerns about PUSD’s declining enrollment, as it will affect the amount of funding received in the future. Some funding is determined by the district’s average daily attendance, which is the enrollment multiplied by the attendance rate. Because of the pandemic and the stay-at-home order, the state stopped calculating the ADA for school districts and will continue to do so until the 2022-2023 school year.

While the school district’s ADA declined by about 638 this year, it will not be penalized for it until 2022-2023. Phelps said the projected loss from the 2020-2022 school years will be about 922 ADA, or $8.1 million.

“We have to prepare now for this loss of revenue in 2022-2023,” Phelps said. “Our current fund balance has been bolstered by one-time funds, but once our one-time funds are spent, our operational deficit will become more pronounced and require major budget reductions.”

Phelps said the entire state is seeing a decline in enrollment for K-12 schools and hopes the state will step in to stabilize the school districts going forward.

For the coming school year, Phelps set three fiscal goals: to serve the needs of all students through all available resources, preserve programs and raise employee compensation.

“As we look forward, these fiscal challenges and goals mean we will have tough choices to make,” Phelps said.

COVID COUNT

Reported cases in Pasadena and surrounding areas as of May 30

South Pasadena: 1,329; Alhambra: 6,891; Unincorporated - Altadena: 3,347; Arcadia: 2,731; Glendale: 20,181; Monrovia: 3,190; San Gabriel: 3,249

Total confirmed cases in Pasadena: 11,290 Total deaths in Pasadena: 347 Total confirmed cases in LA County: 1,243,712 Total deaths in LA County: 24,338

• Health officials in Pasadena reported no new COVID-19 cases or deaths on May 28. Pasadena’s daily case count has been no greater than single digits; the city’s average daily infection rate dropped to 1.4, which is the lowest rate since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Currently, there are 11,290 cases and 347 fatalities from COVID-19 in Pasadena. Hospitalizations have also dropped to below 300 with authorities reporting 298 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Los Angeles County and 18% in the intensive care units. There are 1,243,712 total confirmed cases and 24,338 deaths in the entire county. Los Angeles County represents about 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 39% of deaths. • The Pasadena Public Health Department reported that 68% of the city’s population older than 12 years old has been fully vaccinated. At least 91% of the city received one dose while 99.9% of residents aged 65 and over have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Huntington Hospital treated only seven COVID-19 patients with three in the intensive care unit, illustrating the effectiveness of the vaccines. Over half of Los Angeles County residents 16 years old and older have been fully vaccinated. A vaccination gap still exists as Black and Latino residents continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus. As of May 23, only 40% of Black residents 16 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine compared to 48% of Latino residents, 62% of white residents, and 71% of Asian residents. • A recent study from the Pasadena-based FH Foundation found that people with heart disease or high cholesterol are at an increased risk of a heart attack from a COVID-19 infection. Patients diagnosed with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or suspected with genetic high cholesterol are seven times more likely to have heart attacks after getting COVID-19 than similar patients who did not contract the virus. The study calls for the diagnosis of individuals who have the deadly genetic condition and for those people to take precautions related to COVID-19 infections.

— Information compiled by staff writer Doyoon Kim.

Jericho Road hosts ‘Effective Board Workshop’

By Pasadena Weekly Staff

Nonprofit board members, or those who are interested, are invited to Jericho Road, Pasadena’s two-part virtual “Effective Board Workshop” from 10 a.m. to noon Fridays June 11 and June 18.

Registration is $45; JRP is also offering a limited number of scholarship tickets at $20 each for those affected by COVID-19. The registration deadline is June 10. Sign up at https://bit.ly/3vygKC8.

Nonprofit boards provide governance, resource development and leadership, but many board members have never been taught the basic expectations of service. This offers an orientation to nonprofits that are based in or serve Los Angeles County.

The workshop is taught by nonprofit consultant Mitch Dorger, principal at Dorger Consulting and former chief executive officer at the Tournament of Roses.

He brings to his consulting practice more than 40 years of work experience. That includes 20 years as the chief executive officer in organizations as large as 1,800 people with operating budgets up to $100 million. His work experience encompasses a wide range of functional areas, including program planning and budgeting, crisis management, government relations, event management and sports management.

Jericho Road Pasadena is a nonsectarian, 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that bridges communities by matching the professional talents of volunteers with the needs of community-based nonprofit organizations.

Since Jericho Road Pasadena opened in May 2010, 200 skilled volunteers have completed 500 capacity-building projects for local nonprofits. The projects have provided partner organizations the equivalent of $1,965,000 of operational assistance, with over 21,600 hours in staffing — all through qualified volunteers and free to the organizations in need.

Skilled volunteers improve nonprofits’ operational capacity, including board development, marketing, informational technology, finance and human resources, among other operational issues.