Glendale Unified to resume talks with parents on potential change to school calendar
Parents and students of Toll Middle School, Mark Keppel Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School, and Hoover High School, cross Virginia Avenue in Glendale on the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 11, 2014.
Glendale Unified school officials will seek parent input next month regarding when the academic calendar should begin in 2017-18, following concerns raised by several parents who complained to school officials that the current school year started too early when students returned to classes on Aug. 10.
Three public meetings will be held in February at three locations — Hoover, Glendale and Crescenta Valley high schools — and parents can also share their opinions through a survey that will be posted on the district’s website on Feb. 1.
School officials initially looked into holding the community meetings in January, but opted to hold them in February so they could better inform parents whose children returned to school from winter break last week.
The survey will remain online through Feb. 19.
The impetus for seeking parent input about the academic calendar came about after Montrose parent Sarah Rush created an online petition that garnered more than 2,000 signatures in support of a later start date.
The current school year began on Aug. 10, and the 2016-17 school year will begin on Aug. 8, a date already agreed upon by the Glendale Teachers Assn. Several parents are not pleased with the even earlier date.
In response to the start time next school year, parents made a plea to school board members to open up negotiations again with teachers to delay the start date, but the board opted instead to focus on creating a new calendar for the 2017-18 school year.
After meetings next month, a committee of parents and educators will weigh parents’ opinions about the calendar to draft a new one with the required 180 instructional days as well as days that parents want to honor as holidays or time off.
The committee will then hold several meetings between late February and mid-April to create a new calendar before bringing recommendations to the school board in May.
The school board could adopt a new calendar sometime by September after negotiations with the Glendale Teachers Assn. conclude.
The upcoming parent meetings will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 4 at Hoover High School, 651 Glenwood Road, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 17 at Glendale High School, 1440 East Broadway, and from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 23 at Crescenta Valley High School, 2900 Community Ave.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
