After Glendale parents weigh in on school year start date, GUSD to bring requests to teachers’ union
Nearly a year after Glendale school officials heard numerous complaints from parents who felt the school year started too early last August, officials have spent months weighing opinions from parents, teachers and students in order to decide when the year should begin.
Not long after the last school year began on Aug. 10, parents showed up at school board meetings to request that the start date be pushed back for the upcoming 2016-17 school year, which will begin on Aug. 8.
Although Glendale school board members agreed that Aug. 8 was too early of a start date, in order to push it back, they would have needed to reopen negotiations with the teachers’ union to change the date.
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Instead, they opted to focus on pushing back the start date for the 2017-18 school year. They held a series of parent meetings to gather input and posted an online survey, which brought in 1,000 responses.
The two major takeaways are that the majority of meeting attendees and online respondents would like Glendale’s school year to begin during the third week of August or later and the first semester should end before winter break.
As Glendale school officials prepare to begin negotiations with the Glendale teachers’ union later this summer for the 2017-18 academic year, they will convey those two requests to union representatives.
“Those were the only recommendations brought forth by the committee,” said Maria Gandera, assistant superintendent of Glendale Unified, referring to the 23-member advisory committee that narrowed down stakeholders’ suggestions.
Negotiations with the Glendale teachers’ union are expected to begin in August or September, she added.
No matter the start date, the academic calendar must contain 180 instructional days.
Glendale school board members agreed that the two requests are a step in the right direction.
“At the end of the day, I hope we have a good compromise,” said Greg Krikorian, school board member, during a meeting on Tuesday.
“I think we’re on the right track,” added Armina Gharpetian, school board president.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
