Glendale Unified asks $23M for Sagebrush

It will cost La Cañada about $23 million to have the Sagebrush area under the control of the city’s primary school district, the Glendale Unified school board voted Tuesday.

The proposal, agreed to unanimously by the Glendale board, is a significant increase to the $17-million figure discussed late last month. In the newest iteration, La Cañada would pay $6.8 million in debt service to two Glendale school bonds as well as $16 million in expected reductions in state funding due to decreased enrollment.

La Cañada Unified school board President Ellen Multari said Glendale Unified’s estimated asking price is too much for the La Cañada school district to afford, as it already spends more than it receives from the state on its students.

“It would be imprudent of us to make that kind of a deal that limits our means to educate our students,” she said.

Multari hopes school officials on both sides will come together to discuss the figures face to face and strive to secure a negotiated agreement, something she says is in the best interest of students and families.

“We need to get back to the table,” Multari said. “There needs to be better understanding of where these decision points are coming from.”

Glendale school officials voted 4-0 in favor of the deal following passionate public comments on both sides of the issue. Glendale board member Sandy Russell, a Sagebrush resident, abstained under the direction of Glendale Unified attorneys, who cited a potential conflict of interest.

The proposal asks La Cañada Unified to pay Glendale Unified $16,050,738 over a 12-year period to make up the loss of per-student revenue.

It assumes a 3% increase in state per-pupil funding per year and asks for half the amount of what Glendale officials calculate would have been paid by the state to serve the Sagebrush students.

Glendale Unified Supt. Dick Sheehan described the anticipated loss of $16 million — half of the $32 million the district would lose during that period — as the “worst-case scenario.”

“We still have a very good working relationship with La Cañada and plan on maintaining a good strong working relationship as we move through this … but as a district we need to continue our process,” Sheehan said.

La Cañada Unified Supt. Wendy Sinnette said the GUSD’s proposal represents “a financial commitment far in excess than we could reasonably take on. You cannot even look at those numbers and figure out a way to finance [Glendale Unified’s current] proposition,” she said.

Scott Tracy, a former president of the La Cañada school board who has been active in negotiations over the Sagebrush territory, said the Glendale Unified board vote on Tuesday signified “good news [and] bad news.”

“It’s great that the board has gone through their process and concluded they do want to pursue a negotiated agreement,” Tracy said. “The more troubling aspect is that the terms as currently proposed are impossible for LCUSD to meet.”

Tracy also hopes representatives from both boards can meet in person to negotiate further.

“I think its imperative that we meet face-to-face to determine if we can reach a meeting of the minds,” he added.

Glendale Unified’s proposal also asks La Cañada to pay $6.8 million for bond debt tied to the Measure K and Measure S bonds, in addition to splitting special education costs over a period of six years.

Glendale school board President Greg Krikorian called the proposal fair.

“This keeps our district financially responsible and solvent,” he said. “Fourteen years from now, we’re not going to have that revenue. It’s gone.”

His board colleague, Armina Gharpetian, agreed. “We don’t want to be the district who loses the money because of the transfer. When this is done, we cannot go back and say…we made a mistake.”

La Cañada resident Craig Mazin, a former president of the La Cañada Flintridge Education Foundation, which raises funds for the district, said the Glendale board’s proposal was “neither fair nor reasonable.”

“They’re trying to maneuver it so we in La Cañada look like the bad guys — the ones who won’t go along to get along — it’s way too late for that,” he said.

“It seems to me that the Glendale Unified school district has opted for short-term political expedience over long-term rationality,” Mazin continued. “If this ends up going to the county commission that has the power to redraw school district boundaries, and that commission does redraw the boundaries, then GUSD gets nothing. I think that there’s a very strong likelihood that could happen. I think that’s what should happen.”

Check out a timeline of the Sagebrush issue, a part of our new Infographics page: