‘This is just Rosebud’: A displaced Altadena school holds biggest fundraiser yet to rebuild

Sometimes 8-year-old London Cook can convince herself the temporary digs for her elementary school are her old campus, the place where she first discovered her love of math and P.E. — that “this is just Rosebud.”

It’s been a year and a half since the Eaton Fire tore through the Pasadena Rosebud Academy, destroying the TK-8 charter school founded in the Altadena foothills nearly 20 years ago to promote Black and brown student excellence.

London and the 175 students and staff moved to modular buildings on the campus of the Don Benito Fundamental elementary school, nearly seven miles away in Pasadena.

London, one of a third of Rosebud students displaced by the Eaton Fire, says: “I think it’s nice of them to let us share their campus.”

But administrators at Rosebud say it’s time for students to have their own campus again and have embarked on a capital campaign to rebuild in the Pasadena area. They’re holding their biggest fundraiser yet this Sunday with the “Stand Up For Students” comedy show at the Alex Theatre in Glendale hosted by writer-producer Chris Spencer.

“Our kids deserve the best, we want them to have the best, so we won't settle for just making it work,” said Shawn Brown, Rosebud’s founder and executive director.

It’s hoped the event — with a lineup of comedians like Jesus Trejo and Aida Rodriguez who have been showcased on Funny AF with Kevin Hart — will raise a significant sum toward the school’s eventual rebuild, projected to cost upward of $50 million. It also offers a check-in on where Rosebud stands now: still in recovery.

“We don’t want people to forget about us and think that because we’re somewhere, that we are where we need to be,” Brown said. “We still have a long journey.”

Brown, who also lost her own home in Altadena in the Eaton Fire, said the school has been trying to make the portable classrooms work as much as possible but faces challenges to hands-on learning.

With no sinks in the classrooms, for example, the students are limited to art and science projects that don’t require much handwashing.

The old Altadena campus of the Pasadena Rosebud Academy.

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Courtesy of Pasadena Rosebud Academy

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The campus of the Pasadena Rosebud Academy after the Eaton Fire.

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Courtesy of Pasadena Rosebud Academy

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Yet, despite these constraints, the school community is growing stronger and expects to hit its highest enrollment yet this coming school year, with 215 incoming students.

Meanwhile, displaced families are still driving in from places including downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

“The fire really kind of brought us together more,” Brown said. “It kind of reminded us of who we were, who we are.”

Brown founded Rosebud in 2007 after years teaching middle school. She said she kept seeing Black and brown students arrive well below grade level and believed a different kind of school environment could help them excel.

Brown said Rosebud curricula is built around five pillars: critical thinking, financial literacy, exposure and experience, cultural awareness and service.

There is the added benefit, she said, for students of being around other young Black and brown people with similar life experiences.

"Another big thing is you are working with teachers and staff who believe that you are capable of achieving at a high level, and knowing that they have a fair shot in the future to be successful," Brown said.

London Cook and is picked up from school by her grandfather Joseph Shambrey.

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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For London’s grandfather, Joseph Shambrey, the school has been one of the few constants after the fire.

Shambrey, who with his wife are London’s legal guardians, are living in a Pasadena apartment post-fire as they work toward rebuilding their house in Altadena.

There was no question that they would keep London at Rosebud, even when they were temporarily staying in Gardena and the commute stretched to more than an hour.

Shambrey said London is a “very happy” child, which he credits in no small part to Rosebud.

Whether London will enjoy a new campus is unclear. Brown said the timeline of construction will be decided by the pace of fundraising.

But London is just looking to the year ahead when she enters fourth grade and hopes to make even more friends.

“She always loves coming to school,” Shambrey said. “She does not like staying home.”