Resident group to gather signatures for petition seeking resolution to Sagebrush issue

Frustrated by stalled negotiations between La Cañada and Glendale school officials regarding the transfer of students living in western La Cañada into that city’s school district, a citizens’ group has decided to begin pursuing a resolution.

Unite LCF, a group of residents living in the Sagebrush area of La Cañada, announced it will move ahead with plans to collect signatures from residents in a petition that could eventually be submitted to the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

The move could lead to a legal decision on transferring the area into La Cañada Unified.

Unite LCF Chair Tom Smith, who established the group in 2013, said members felt it was time to move forward with preparations, since the school districts have failed to reach consensus after two years of talks.

“It seemed like we were on the cusp of what would have been a historic negotiated landmark settlement,” Smith said Wednesday. “And [now] that seems to have totally gone off track.”

In November 2014, Glendale Unified officials said they would accept $23 million from La Cañada Unified in exchange for the Sagebrush territory, a figure they said would have helped mitigate the loss of potentially hundreds of students and the attendance-based funding they generate.

But for La Cañada school officials, the offer was “untenable.”

Several months later, in May, Glendale Unified Supt. Dick Sheehan left Glendale Unified to take the superintendent post in Covina-Valley Unified, leaving the fate of negotiations up in the air.

Glendale and La Cañada school officials, along with the city of La Cañada, each pitched in $5,000 in June to hire a Sacramento based consultant to sort out the matter.

Reached by phone on Thursday, Glendale school board President Christine Walters said officials are waiting to review their findings.

“We are planning to sit down in the very near future with the two parties and review options,” she said. “We’re waiting for them to complete that and then we would resume discussions.”

In the meantime, she added, Glendale Unified has granted every request by La Cañada parents living in the Sagebrush territory to send their children to La Cañada schools.

Armina Gharpetian, vice president of the Glendale school board, confirmed that Glendale Unified remains open to the process.

“GUSD is still looking into options and mitigations which wouldn’t cause a tremendous financial harm to our district if the territory transfer were to happen,” Gharpetian said. “On the same token, we understand United LCF’s interest and their right to move forward with the process.”

Glendale Unified has hired two co-interim superintendents as they work to search for Sheehan’s replacement, someone the district hopes to hire by July.

In the meantime, Smith estimated it could take Unite LCF two to three months to collect signatures from a required 25% of some 1,600 Sagebrush voters.

The group hopes to transfer Sagebrush students into La Cañada schools beginning with the 2017-18 school year.

“We feel like we need to move forward,” Smith said. “And if, in the meantime, the two districts come to a negotiated settlement, wonderful.”