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Endorses Kenne

The race

Pasadena Unified voters elect board members by geographic sub-district on November 3, 2026, by plurality. Four seats are up:

The context is documented hardship: the January 2025 Eaton Fire devastated parts of the district, Altadena above all; the board approved $24.5 million in budget cuts in November 2025 against a projected $30–35 million shortfall; enrollment is below 14,000; and a school-consolidation process stalled this spring. The field rests on Altadena Now's candidate-qualification reporting and the Pasadena Education Network's election pages — compilation grade.

The candidates

### District 1

Kimberly Kenne — incumbent. First elected in 2011, re-elected in 2013, 2017 and 2022 (56 percent in a three-way race in her most recent election, per the Pasadena City Clerk's compiled results), seeking a fifth term. She has attended every PUSD board meeting since 2004 — first as a parent, then as a trustee. By trade she is a systems integration professional from the finance sector, with a Georgetown business degree (finance major, computer science minor). Her parent-leadership résumé predates her seat: PTA president, site council chair, District Advisory Council chair, co-founder of the Parent Education Network, and a six-year term on the California Practitioners Advisory Group advising the State Board of Education on Title I. Her documented in-office posture is fiscal interrogation: at the November 2025 cuts meeting she said, "I'm still not sure exactly what we're doing wrong in our spending" (per LAist, via Altadena Now), and her stated 2026 priority is making the district's financial reports not just published but understandable — work she says has been slowed by turnover in the chief business officer's office and the fire. Credit: fifteen years of asking the district's hardest documented question — where does the money actually go — with a finance professional's training behind it. Dirt: longevity again, and shared responsibility for a board that approved $24.5 million in cuts; her public questioning of those cuts is on the record, which is what oversight looks like, but the cuts are her board's too.

Felita R. Kealing — challenger. A PUSD graduate and parent of two PUSD graduates, a longtime district employee — assistant coordinator for marketing, student recruitment and community relations at Marshall Fundamental — and a past president of the Pasadena Educational Foundation's board. Her family lost their Altadena home in the Eaton Fire. Her campaign emphasizes schools as community hubs and stronger school-neighborhood partnerships. She carries the Los Angeles County Democratic Party's consent-calendar endorsement and the Stonewall Democrats' endorsement. Credit: an insider's knowledge of the district's enrollment problem — student recruitment is literally her job — and a fire survivor's standing in the district's hardest-hit seat. Dirt: none found. The documented tension is structural: she is the district's own recruitment-and-marketing staff asking to oversee the administration she works for, backed by the county party machine, against the board's most persistent internal critic of that administration's spending.

### District 3

Michelle Richardson Bailey — incumbent. Bailey ran unopposed in 2022; this is District 3's first contested race since. She carries the county Democratic Party's consent-calendar endorsement. Her individual platform and signature initiatives were thin in this pass — no campaign site or questionnaire text was retrievable beyond the PEN questionnaire process, which she participated in. Credit: an incumbent with a full term behind her and no documented controversy. Dirt: none found; the file's thinness after a full term is itself the finding — see Record gaps.

Veronica Elias — challenger. A Pasadena resident and PUSD parent, a current administrator in a Los Angeles-area school district, with 25 years in education — coaching teachers and turning around test scores — and a doctorate in educational leadership from USC. Her stated program, in her own answers to Altadena Now: "Our district is facing a fiscal crisis, and families deserve leadership that's honest, transparent, and prepared with real solutions"; specifically, an independent review of administrative spending before any further classroom cuts, and a comprehensive strategy on enrollment and chronic absenteeism, "both of which directly affect the district's long-term financial health." Credit: the race's clearest documented program, from a practicing school administrator with turnaround experience. Dirt: she would be a first-time officeholder overseeing a district she does not work in; no controversy found.

### District 7 (open)

Dennis McNamara — candidate. A longtime PUSD volunteer — Math Power Hour tutor, years of work with the Pasadena Educational Foundation — and, with his wife Lynne, a significant PEF supporter whose children went through PUSD public schools from kindergarten through high school. Outgoing District 7 trustee Yarma Velázquez endorsed him in her own words: he "has demonstrated a consistent and substantive interest in PUSD," understands the departments, and knows that District 7 requires "advocating fiercely for our neighborhoods" and building "a strong and sustainable public school system." Assemblymember John Harabedian also endorsed him. His campaign's fiscal pledge: "I will continue to be a steward for the taxpayer as we carry out our obligations to deliver a comprehensive plan to make every dollar count of the $1.4 billion in bonds taxpayers approved through Measures O and R for school modernizations," with "greater focus and resources into the classroom." Credit: a decade-scale volunteer record inside the district's schools and an explicit taxpayer-stewardship pledge on the largest pot of money the board controls. Dirt: no governing record — his experience is volunteer and philanthropic, not fiduciary; the endorsements of the outgoing trustee and a state assemblymember are establishment backing, noted as such.

Cynthia Torres — candidate. Founder (2010) of College Decisions LLC, a Pasadena college-admissions consulting firm (BBB A+ rated), a certified educational planner, and a former president of the Harvard Alumni Association. The credential that matters most here: she chaired a financial oversight committee for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District — direct experience auditing how a California school district spends. She qualified at the deadline's last day in the extended window (filed August 11, qualified August 12). She carries the Los Angeles County Democratic Party's endorsement. Credit: a genuine, relevant oversight résumé — financial-oversight chair is not a ceremonial post. Dirt: none found. The documented counters are timing and profession: a candidacy assembled in the final 48 hours of an extended window, and a professional life spent advising families who can pay for private college counseling — perspective, not misconduct, and printed as such.

### District 5 — appointed in lieu

Patrice Marshall McKenzie — incumbent. Unopposed; appointed in lieu of election under the district's cost-saving resolution; carries the county party's consent-calendar endorsement. No contest exists for voters to decide, and there is no vote to call.

Pros and cons

Record gaps

Searches run: Altadena Now's full 2026 PUSD coverage (the qualification reports of Aug. 12–13; the Kenne profile of Oct. 20; the Elias profile of Oct. 21; the Torres profile of Oct. 22; the Harabedian–McNamara endorsement report); the Pasadena Education Network's election pages (questionnaires sent to all six ballot candidates; the District 5 appointment explanation); Dennis McNamara's campaign site (platform and the Velázquez endorsement in her words); the Los Angeles County Democratic Party's consent calendar and Stonewall Democrats' endorsement list (Kealing, Bailey, McKenzie, Torres); Peter Dreier's voter guide (race structure). Bailey's own campaign materials and any questionnaire text from her were not retrievable in this pass, and no controversy was found for any candidate; McKenzie's race does not appear on the ballot.

OUR CALL

District 1 — endorse Kimberly Kenne. Fifteen years, a finance professional's training, and a documented habit of interrogating this district's spending in public — including its current cuts — is the oversight profile this page exists to reward. Her challenger is a decent candidate who works for the administration the board oversees. District 3 — endorse Veronica Elias. An administrator with a doctorate, a turnaround record, and a specific, printed program — audit administrative spending before cutting classrooms — against an incumbent whose published file after an unopposed term does not answer it. District 7 — endorse Dennis McNamara. A decade of volunteering inside these schools, the outgoing trustee's earned endorsement, and an explicit taxpayer-stewardship pledge over the $1.4 billion bond program. Torres's financial-oversight experience is credited above and makes this the closest call on the page; it does not outweigh the in-district record. District 5 — no call. McKenzie is appointed in lieu; there is no vote to decide.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. ---

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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