He came like gang-busters as a disgraced former Superintendent of a small Indiana school district, selling songs of success, re-segregation, journeys to the mountain top, and preparing to leave and take his earnings back to Indiana, after having failed to reach his goals at the expense of Pasadena’s children, with the assistance of a community determined to protect him while the children suffered.

Dr. Percy Clark came to Pasadena Unified School District under a cloud of disgrace suspicion and controversy. After having been fired as superintendent of the Lawrence Township School District in 1996, allegedly for-repeatedly lying and other inappropriate actions listed in a series of articles in the Indianapolis Star. The Star newspaper also reported that Clark had a pattern of lying about applying for jobs in other school districts, while under contract to Lawrence Township in 1990 and again in 1994. Other behavior reported in the Star included making late night calls to harass school board members, and in what seemed to be near paranoid behavior, blaming unnamed enemies for trying to discredit him.

The Pasadena School Board members failed to disclose Clark’s record to the Pasadena community before hiring him, even though a background check disclosed the inappropriate behavior in Indiana that led to his firing. Upon arriving in Pasadena Clark’s first action was to rid the district of staff with experience and knowledge. Again this action seemed almost paranoid as he hired staff who had no ties or history with the Pasadena community or its children.

The staff turnovers have been of historic proportions and this year nearly one half of the school principals have left the district, leaving the district again with principals having no experience or family ties to Pasadena. Clark himself has never set up a home here and maintains his home in the exclusive and predominately white community of Carmel, Indiana. With him he brought his longtime associate, Kathleen Duba, to take control of the administrative duties of the District and created a job title just for her.

Like Clark, Duba, who calls Illinois home, has no ties with Pasadena, and together they serve much like an occupying force over the lives of Pasadena’s children. In the process the much lauded testing scores of PUSD schools have declined in schools where there are predominately Black and Brown students. John Muir High School is down significantly and it is now reported to be the lowest scoring school in the district and is close to facing being taken over by the state. Jackson Elementary school with a predominately Black and Brown student body is also at the bottom of the academic ladder. All schools in the district are behind on the state academic performance index except Don Benito (not predominately Black and Brown).

As a note: parents at so-called low performing schools MUST be informed that their child’s school is performing low and that they are eligible to transfer them to a "better school." Therefore, All the children of Muir and all the children of Jackson MUST be notified and have the right to transfer.

The pattern is clear that schools with the majority of Black and Brown students are at the bottom while others seem to be thriving. The trend is in keeping with Clark’s stated goal of making the district more attractive to whites and the middle class. In all, Clark has failed to bring the district to the mountaintop that he talks so much about, and what little progress there is, has been at the expense of the Black and Brown students at Muir and Jackson. Clark apparently has such little regard for the Black students at Jackson that last year he gave temporary non-principal assignments to the then principal of Jackson to work outside the school with the Tournament of Roses for the benefit of kids not at her school, apparently as part of his public relations scheme to keep whites in the area thinking that something wonderful is happening at the school district. It seems that if indeed something wonderful was happening, there would not be the ongoing turnover in the district by Principals who know what is really happening.

There have been little publicized moves afoot to get Clark out of the district by some citizens groups who believe they should not stand idly by while the Board develops a separate-but unequal policy in the district that punishes Black and Brown kids while trying to make the district educationally safe for whites to enter. The movement has not caught on, in part because of efforts by some board members past and present to protect Clark and allow him to continue and complete his efforts to re-segregate the school district by stopping the busing while not providing new schools to decrease the overcrowding in the predominately Black and Brown schools.

The problem for Pasadena Unified School District is in truth that Clark has failed to live up to his billings and his supporters cannot continue to put the best face on a bad situation for much longer. To keep up the front, Pasadena has a Public Relations staff of two PR professionals where in the past there was only one. In an interesting and peculiar development, it appears that Clark is now promoting himself as a Reverend. When he arrived in Pasadena he informed a Sunday morning crowd at First African Methodist Episcopal Church that his mother had wanted him to become either a minister or an educator. He stated that he had achieved the educator role. At a Founder’s Day program on May 12, 2003 at Hillside Tabernacle Church of God In Christ in Altadena he was listed as "Reverend Percy Clark Jr."

In a year Clark could take his million dollars back to Indiana and leave Pasadena. His contract which reportedly includes his $175, 000 per year salary, expenses and a $20,000 per year bonus if he stays for five years. The five years concludes next year.

The question is, where will that leave the Black and Brown students of the District and why are these two community populations keeping quiet while their kids fall farther and farther behind on the academic scale? Instead of preparing for College the District policies may well be leading them to unemployment lines and prison cells.

When there are enough African American and Latino parents and supporters of Black children who care enough and are mad at being second and third and who don’t want to take it any more, there should be a loud outcry and demonstrations to get something that Percy Clark and the present board is unable or unwilling to do - make Pasadena a great school district known for great educational programs for all its students.

They say the proof is in the scores. Check them out and answer this question: "Are our children better off than they were "B.C," (before Clark), or is it better only at Webster and Don Benito, while things are moving downward at Muir and Jackson?" Then ask yourself, "Why is that, since all kids are to be treated equal and no child is to be left behind?" Then ask yourself what are you going to do about it.