Glendale Unified School District Board candidates' Q&As

Two candidates in this race did not respond to calls about the questions: Hasmig Aslanian and Naira Kachatrian

Greg Krikorian

The Glendale Unified School District is facing millions in budget reductions and expects most of its $21.3 million in reserves to be depleted by the end of 2011. What expertise will you bring to discussions about solutions for budget cuts?

I've continually sought proper funding from Sacramento, and bring both expertise and results. I helped organized "State of the Schools" and "Adequate Funding" forums in our region to educate our stakeholders on the lack of funding for public education. I helped conduct the Health Insurance Enrollment Audit. Our school district saved over $300,000 annually. We've restructured our workers compensation program: annual savings of $2.4 million.

We eliminated the need to lease outside facilities for the Verdugo Academy and the Food Service Program by utilizing district-owned facilities: annual savings of $150,000. I worked for two years on Energy Education in our schools: The district has saved over $2.6 million in energy/utility-related costs. Also, because of the program, a more solid bond has been formed between Glendale Water & Power and the district. Result: more than $140,000 of funding from the city and the promise of inclusion in other Glendale Water & Power savings programs.

We have heard suggestions for cutting costs, but what are your ideas to generate revenue for the district?

There are multiple opportunities for our district to generate revenue, and the first is to increase enrollment in certain areas and by bringing those students who have left back to our schools. Our Advance Path program is a dropout recovery program to give students a second chance at completing their education, and it also gives us additional revenue due to the increased enrollment.

I am also currently working on the development of a Solar Power Program to curb our energy dependency on Glendale Water & Power by seeking out alternative forms of energy to fuel our schools. Our district utilities' cost (water and power) has been increasing at an alarming rate (2007-08: $4.6 million; 2008-09: $5.1 million).

There are also plenty of opportunities in our food services department by partnering with Subway and other healthy food franchises to provide expanded meal choices for the students and staff