Revived talks on Sagebrush transfer in the works
Mountain Avenue School students arrive for class at the La Crescenta elementary campus on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015.
After a hiatus, Glendale school officials are moving forward on resolving the Sagebrush issue, scheduling a meeting with advisers next week.
For decades, Glendale and La Cañada have bickered over the area, which is within La Cañada Flintridge but served by Glendale schools.
Several months after Glendale Unified delivered a proposal to La Cañada Unified in late 2014, asking $23 million for the transfer, both sides learned that a core piece of the proposal ran afoul of standards laid out by the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization.
Glendale Unified had suggested a phase-in plan where Sagebrush students would trickle into La Cañada schools over a period of a dozen years. But in March, both sides learned the maximum phase-in period is under five years.
The information led both districts to regroup, but not without a new adviser that Glendale Unified, La Cañada Unified and the city of La Cañada Flintridge hired in July, with each party paying $5,000 for Capitol Advisors’ expertise, particularly that of Shin Green, the lead adviser.
Green recently met with La Cañada school and city officials as well as members of Unite LCF, the group that reignited the effort in 2013 to pull the Sagebrush territory into La Cañada Unified, according to Robert McEntire, chief business and financial officer for Glendale Unified.
“We’re told that preliminary discussions have been focused on improving Capitol Advisors’ understanding of the goals and positions of each party as well as the collection of background materials,” McEntire said Tuesday evening during Glendale’s school board meeting.
McEntire, school board President Christine Walters and Vice President Armina Gharpetian, along with interim Supt. Donald Empey, will meet with Capitol Advisors on Sept. 9.
“While we expect there will be many more face-to-face meetings that follow up this initial first step, we’re excited that we’re finally moving forward,” McEntire said.
This time around, he added, officials will also gain assistance from David Soldani, an attorney with the law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo to verify that any proposal meets all regulatory requirements.