Learning Matters: Local elections are around the corner

With the state and national elections behind us and a new year ahead, it’s time — ready or not — to turn our attention to local April elections.

For the first time, candidates for Glendale Unified and Glendale Community College boards will be elected from within their neighborhoods, in “trustee areas.” Candidates will campaign to represent the trustee area in which they live, and voters will cast a ballot for only one candidate in each race.

No longer will voters for our educational institutions elect representatives from other parts of town. The City Council and other city offices remain “at large” elections.

The school and college districts are both divided into five areas, but their areas do not have the same boundaries. Trustee area maps can be found at the city’s website glendalevotes.org.

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The college seats up for election this year are Trustee Area 2 (a swath that includes Glenoaks and Chevy Chase canyons as well as a stretch from Pacific Avenue to Verdugo Woodlands and north to Honolulu Avenue), Area 3 (northwest Glendale), and Area 4 (everything south of Colorado Street).

Glendale Unified will elect trustees for Area B (northwest Glendale), Area C (Verdugo Woodlands, part of the San Rafael Hills and south to Colorado), and Area D (Adams Hill up through Glenoaks and Chevy Chase canyons).

Neighborhoods outside these areas will not vote for school or college boards until the next election.

There is no incumbent trustee for the college or school board in south Glendale where I live. So far, I am aware of at least two candidates in each of those races who have pulled papers to run, and for the record, I’m not one of them.

I don’t know who may be considering campaigns for the occupied seats, other than the incumbents (not including Christine Walters, who has announced she will not be a candidate for reelection). Candidates have until Jan. 26 to file their nomination papers, according to the city website.

I’ll be interested to hear what issues emerge as the races get underway, given that candidates are expected “to have issues.” Meanwhile, I’ll share my hopes for the campaign and a few issues for consideration.

First, I hope for a civil and nonpartisan campaign for these nonpartisan offices. Yes, it’s true that political parties and elected officials often endorse candidates who may eventually decide to run for partisan political office and who, in the meantime, might be expected to support certain party positions.

Some candidates might even be considering these boards as “entry level” offices in hopes of attaining “higher office” in the years ahead. It was not unusual, when I was on the school board, for someone to ask me when I was going to run for City Council.

For my part, I think education is a high calling that deserves at least an eight-year commitment. It took me a full four years and my first turn as president to really understand how a board can most effectively operate to benefit the district.

It can take longer for local board members — and through them the district — to gain influence in regional and statewide education efforts.

I hope the candidates — especially the successful ones — appreciate the exemplary districts in which they hope to serve. There will always be challenges in education, as populations, technologies and political climates shift, but candidates and voters should know Glendale has strong educational leadership in place, poised to move their districts forward with the help of thoughtful, informed board members.

Issues abound, as do opinions about them: California State Standards, better known as the Common Core (I think they’re moving students in the right direction); class size (it isn’t everything; California reduced primary classes to 20:1 for many years, at great expense, and the results were not what we’d hoped); housing (an issue for families as well as teachers, one that will continue to affect both enrollment and staffing, though it isn’t usually considered an education issue); technology (important, but it doesn’t trump reading).

I look for candidates willing to examine the facts underlying the issues, and I look for board members more interested in the issues than the office.

We need board members who care about good governance and who understand that the authority of a board member exists only in the authority of the board, in a majority vote.

I wish the candidates well in sorting out the issues. I wish the community well in sorting out the candidates.

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JOYLENE WAGNER served on the Glendale Unified School Board from 2005 to 2013. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.