EDUCATION
Facing significant state funding cuts, the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education voted Tuesday to eliminate 112 teaching positions, as class sizes increase to an average of 30 students in the fall.
Board members voted 4 to 1 to raise class sizes for kindergarten through third grade, from an average of 20 students to 30, triggering the layoffs because fewer teachers will be needed. Board member Nayiri Nahabedian cast the dissenting vote.
School districts have until March 15 to notify teachers they may be let go.
Increasing class size would likely put 60 to 80 teachers out of work once retirement, attrition and reassignments are finalized, said John Garcia, assistant superintendent for human resources.
About 1,300 teachers work in Glendale Unified, and hundreds pushed back Tuesday, filling the board room and protesting along Wilson Avenue and Jackson Street with signs such as “Who’s being unreasonable?” Earlier in the day, teachers lined up outside Glendale High School holding up signs protesting the possible class-size increases.
Union President Tami Carlson said teachers had met the district’s request for $3.8 million in annual concessions without capping health benefits, which district officials favor.
Last month, the district declared an impasse in negotiations with the teachers union, setting off a series of procedural fact finding and mediation steps.
A group of parents who want a parcel tax put on the ballot for Glendale Unified School District has grown from a handful to more than 200 members in a few days, organizers said.
Parents behind Save Our Schools Glendale, or SOS Glendale, will meet with school board members and parent teacher association representatives next week to discuss possible support for an education parcel tax, said the group’s chairman, Edward Bash.
In Culver City and South Pasadena, where voters approved parcel taxes, supporters carefully polled community members and tied the funds to individual programs like music and athletics.
Glendale Parent Teacher Assn. President Lynn Miyamoto said successful campaigns must be handled deliberatively and cautiously, and added there is room for Save Our Schools Glendale to work with the association.
PUBLIC SAFETY
A medical facility that was allegedly performing massages without a permit was ordered Monday to stop soliciting those services.
