PEN began when several parents of Pasadena area pre-schoolers came together in the Summer of 2003. Many of us hardly knew each other, but we had one thing in common: we were interested in sending our children to public school. Most of us were products of public schools, including three from PUSD. Despite our interest in public school, we were discouraged, because we had heard some negative things about PUSD from neighbors, coworkers, real estate agents and friends.
We decided to evaluate the schools for ourselves and see what help, if any, we could offer. After meeting with parents of PUSD students, administrators including the superintendent, school board members, and - most importantly - after touring several schools, we realized that we have some great public schools. We also realized that most of the discouraging things we heard were said by people who had never set foot on a PUSD campus. Therefore, instead of trying to "help" the schools, we decided to focus on communicating accurate, credible information about the schools to the community and connecting families interested in learning more about their public school options.
Once we expanded our meetings to include the public, in early 2004, we named our group Pasadena Education Network and we became the "Steering Committee". This group was comprised of: Kristin Maschka & David Hitchcock, Maggie & Chris Brandow, Jackie Clem & Chris Whiting, Brence Culp & Mark Goodstein, Haley & Marc Karish, Julie & Tod Cole, Christine & Larry O'Brien, Julie & John Root, Jennifer McCreight, Kim Kenne, and Dhari Thein. Our children now attend different PUSD schools and each of us couldn't be happier.
Today PEN is run by the Board of Directors, two part-time staff -- executive director Nancy Rose Dufford and program director Susan Savitt Schwartz -- and a great group of volunteers.
For more information about volunteering, please contact susan@penfamilies.org. We're also always looking for new Directors for our Board,so email board@penfamilies.org if you are interested.
Click here to become a member of Pasadena Education Network.
COMPLETE SCHEDULE
- Looking at Elementary
- Looking at Middle School
PEN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that depends on your contributions. Please click this button to donate today!
Join a PEN Online Discussion Group PEN offers various online discussion groups to help parents network with each other...
