Pasadena Star News Endorsement Editorial

By Mark Mastromatteo

FOR all the hard knocks the Pasadena Unified School District gets, some deserved and some merely coming with the territory, this election season it certainly is seeing a lot of excellence among the community members seeking to serve on its board of education. For Seat 2, voters couldn't do better than parent and schools volunteer par excellence Mark Mastromatteo. He set up his sole-proprietor advertising business so that he can work at night and be at his son's school during the afternoon. "How many times have you heard this lament: `My dad was never there.' So I got to be there," he says with justified pride. As head of the PTA at the McKinley magnet arts school, he has seen the school of choice grow from 900 students to 1,100 in two years as parents vote with their feet in seeking broad educations for their children. The parent group raised $100,000 last year to ensure better facilities for their kids, expanding the arts curriculum and PE offerings and bettering the library. "But what we mostly did was raise morale," Mastromatteo says. "We told the district, `Look, you really don't have a plan. Follow us. We have a plan."' That's a great attitude. He's branched out to help other schools in the district, and sees a future of reopening closed campuses "with a brand and a focus." A bright, open collaborator, Mastromatteo will bring energy to the board.