Glendale Unified seeks input from parents to shape 2017-18 school year

In response to parents’ concerns, Glendale school officials will begin drafting a new academic calendar with a later start time than in recent years. However, before they begin, they want to gather input from parents during three public meetings next month.

When the current school year began on Aug. 10, Glendale students were the earliest to return to school compared to all neighboring school districts, and parents urged school board members to set a later start time on next year’s calendar.

But the 2016-17 school calendar, which will begin on Aug. 8, had already been agreed upon in negotiations with the Glendale Teachers Union, and school board members voted to not open up negotiations again to change the date.

Now, their focus is on seeking input from parents to create the 2017-18 calendar, which must include 180 instructional days, and one that “reflects as authentically as possible the various interests that are out there,” said co-interim Supt. Joel Shawn during a recent school board meeting.

Shawn admitted the calendar won’t please everyone, but district officials are still prepared to make an extensive effort to reach out to parents for their opinions.

A survey on the district’s website will ask for parents’ thoughts as to when the start date should be, and which days students should have off. The survey will be posted online between Jan. 8 and 22.

Survey results will help with calendar development by the Superintendent’s Committee on Calendar Development, made up of 27 people who will meet five times between January and March to discuss calendar options.

“[The survey] will allow the committee to really glean where the important dates or weeks are for us,” said Maria Gandera, assistant superintendent of human resources for Glendale Unified.

Montrose parent Sarah Rush created an online petition the day Glendale students returned to school this year. There were more than 2,000 signatures on the petition, and it spurred school officials to create the calendar committee, a group they have not had since 2008.

The new committee will include three high school students, three parents, three teachers and three principals, among others, Gandera said.

Their recommendations will go before members of the Glendale Teachers Assn. in May for their consideration during negotiations.

Under the California educational code, any school district can establish its own starting and ending date, but teachers’ unions do have a say in suggesting the academic calendar they prefer from a variety of options presented by school district staff.

The parent meetings will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 11 at Glendale High School, followed by a meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 13 at Hoover High School and another one from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 14 at Crescenta Valley High School.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan