School district opens itself up to questions

LA CRESCENTA — About 35 residents peppered local education officials Thursday with questions about teen drug use and school funding during a meeting at Rosemont Middle School.

In addition to a large contingent from Glendale Unified School District, officials from Glendale Community College, including interim President/Supt. Dawn Lindsay, briefly addressed the crowd, asking to be called directly for suggestions. She was joined by a few college board trustees.

The question-and-answer session came in the middle of a Crescenta Valley Town Council meeting and quickly evolved into a dress rehearsal for Glendale Unified Supt. Michael Escalante’s Oct. 1 State of the Schools address. Much of the time Thursday centered on enlisting community participation to maintain school safety and academic achievement at local schools.

After a parent asked about a student who was arrested for possessing drugs, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Toly confirmed that the teen was arrested at Rosemont Middle School for selling Ecstasy. “There are a lot of drugs that haven’t been here, and it looks like it’s going to be here for a while,” he said. “We have a lot of kids who are fearless of drugs, and they’re willing to try anything. But we get a lot of cooperation from kids who say they are there and they don’t want them there.”

District officials pointed to an anonymous tip-line students can call. It was recently used to apprehend the drug-dealing student, officials said. But the best way to combat drugs is through greater parental supervision and activism, they said.

“There are a lot of parents with a lot of information with what’s going on in their homes, and they don’t always share it with us,” Escalante said. “If we have drugs in our schools, they didn’t come from our schools. They came from our community, and it’s our obligation as a community to protect our schools.”

Richard Toyon’s son and daughter are new to the district from a private school, and he said he was pleased to see the relationship district and school officials had with law enforcement agencies and the broader community.

“The drug problem is always a concern,” he said. “This was very gratifying and enlightening that they could all come out.”