After guiding Glendale Unified through a rough transition, Christine Walters prepares to exit
When Christine Walters departs from the Glendale Unified school board next month, she’ll leave a legacy of having helped steer the district through one of its most challenging transitions in 2015 and 2016 — when the district was without a superintendent.
About two years ago, when Glendale Unified’s then superintendent, Richard Sheehan, announced he was leaving Glendale to head the Covina Valley Unified School District, his unexpected departure set off a months-long search for Glendale’s next chief, during which Walters was the board’s president.
Between July 2015 and April 2016, three interim superintendents took turns leading the district as the school board confronted important issues.
They dealt with budget concerns, weighed how to spend money from a $270-million Measure S bond, addressed parents’ concerns about the school year beginning too early in August and faced decisions surrounding citizens’ efforts to transfer the Sagebrush territory of La Cañada Flintridge out of Glendale Unified and into La Cañada Unified.
Ultimately, the board hired Winfred Roberson Jr. to oversee Glendale’s 30 schools and 26,000 students. He started last April.
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Because she didn’t seek reelection, Walters will reach the end of her term next week. She said she’s proud that she voted to appoint Roberson to the job.
“One of the most important jobs the board has is to hire a superintendent,” Walters said.
Taline Arsenian, president of the Glendale Teachers Assn., said she was impressed with Walters’ leadership and her collaborative nature during that “difficult” time.
“I truly believed these three interims empowered the board, allowing them to take on the long and arduous process of hiring a superintendent that was going to be the best fit for GUSD, which they eventually did in April with Mr. Roberson,” Arsenian said.
As Walters’ presidency neared its end in 2016, she received a certificate of appreciation from the Glendale Teachers Assn. — the first-ever such honor the union has given, Arsenian said.
The award recognized Walters’ “unwavering commitment to serve in the best interests of our students and staff, in that very special Christine way — cool, calm, collected, and logical, with humor and stability,” Arsenian said.
When Walters decided to run for the school board in 2009, she wasn’t pleased with the relationship the union had with district officials. Over time, it’s become much more collaborative, she said.
Back then, she viewed public education as a vital component of a strong community, and she’s become rooted even more in that belief.
“As time has gone on, and national and global politics have shifted the way they have, I believe that even more — that we need to have well-educated, critical-thinking students that understand issues and want to be engaged.”
Walters said the school board will need to continue to focus on what’s important without getting sidetracked.
“There’s so many outside factors that shift constantly and can distract our attention from serving students,” she said, as she urged board members to keep their focus on “where it needs to be — which is on our students, our schools and our classrooms.”
Joining the board on May 1 will be newcomer Shant Sahakian, a longtime volunteer in Glendale.
“I feel like he and I have very similar values, very similar thinking,” Walters said. “He’s really a younger version of me. I feel 100% confident having him in my seat and continuing the great work.”
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
