The Future of the Burbank Elementary Campus

A preschool at that services autistic and other special needs children could be relocated to next year along with two other preschools, a mental health center and several nonprofits.

The elementary school currently in session at Burbank is scheduled to close, along with Loma Alta, next fall, and previous to a Pasadena Unified School District board meeting last month, district officials had not specificed what the campus might be used for.

The Los Angeles Universal Preschool opened the special needs school at Loma Alta in 2009, but with the campus now slated to go to a local charter school, it appears it may need to be relocated.

Board members were set to vote at the May 24 PUSD meeting on the proposal to relocate that school, along with a Pasadena Unified mental health program, the Hodges Preschool program and one other district program, but several board members voted against the move on the grounds that nobody in the community had been notified about potential changes to the campus.

"My hope is that the residents in the area get a say," said board member Ramon Miramontes, one of three who voted against moving the proposal forward. 

The final vote was a 3-3 tie with Miramontes, Scott Phelps and Altadena resident Kim Kenne voting against it.  Tom Selinske, Ed Honowitz and Renatta Cooper all voted to move the proposal forward.

It appears that Altadena residents will now be involved: There is a meeting scheduled for Monday, June 13, at Burbank for residents who want to give their input to the district before the plan goes forward (a flyer about that meeting is attached to this story to the right).  The PUSD board will then vote on the proposal at its Tuesday, June 14, meeting.

Besides the issue of what educational uses could go there, there are several other issues for Altadena residents:

• A plan that would convert some field space on the campus into parking capacity.  For more details, read on that plan
• Neighborhood parking issues.  Selinske, who is chair of a subcommittee that discussed the project in a meeting on Tuesday, said that without an expansion of 75-80 parking spots, there would be an impact on street parking in the area
• A rumor about the Aveson Charter School relocating its Pasadena high school to the spot.  Altadena Town Council chair Gino Sund, who lives in the area, said that flyers about Aveson relocating to the campus are being circulated.  Superintendent Edwin Diaz noted at the May 24 meeting that the school's leaders did request the space.  However, Selinske said in an interview Tuesday, that the request has been denied and there is no chance that Aveson will be relocated there.
• Construction.  There will be about $150,000 to $170,000 in construction work done on the campus if the district's plan is carried out.

The full plan can be viewed attached to the right of this article.

Editor's note: The original version of this article mistakenly read that the Pasadena Mental Health Center would be relocated to the Burbank campus.