Middle School

GLENDALE— A teacher at Toll Middle School has sued Glendale Unified, claiming she was fired for clashing with the principal. Five school district officials, include retiring Supt. Michael Escalante and Toll Middle School Principal Paula Nelson, are named in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of teacher Jennifer Pakradouni, who alleges the district retaliated against her because she was outspoken and clashed with Nelson. Lawyers representing the district continue to investigate the dismissal, and requested several documents Monday from Pakradouni's lawyer, Anahid Agemian.

GLENDALE — Each year, the Foreign Language Academy of Glendale continues to expand its global reach. Glendale Unified's dual-language immersion program will reach middle schools next year. It will reach new destinations at new elementary schools, and it has transformed Franklin Elementary School. English-only instruction will be phased out at the west Glendale school during the next few years, officials said. "Every year it grows another grade level at each of the sites," said Joanna Junge, the district's director of special projects, intercultural education and professional development.

GLENDALE — The longtime girlfriend of outgoing Glendale Unified Supt. Michael Escalante has been promoted to principal of Rosemont Middle School, a move that fills the void left by the successor to the top job at Crescenta Valley High. School district officials on Wednesday defended the promotion of Cynthia Livingston to Rosemont against any appearance of preferential treatment, pointing out that Escalante, who is retiring at the end of the semester, had no part in the selection process.

“Favilla” – not pyroligneous, consuetude shanghaied or any of the other words he spelled earlier – proved to be the downfall of Jeremiah Cortez, an eighth grader at Toll Middle School who on Friday had advanced to the sixth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Jeremiah, 14, began the competition with 272 other spellers from around the country, progressing to a field of 48 after passing through...

Gail Dunham’s class broke into groups Monday, each telling a story — not in Spanish, Armenian, Korean or Tagalog — but in sign language. Though no students in the Wilson Middle School class struggle to hear, they have mastered more than 300 vocabulary words in five weeks. And students said it’s led them to appreciate people’s differences. “It helps you meet new people,” said student David Ghukasyan. “People you never thought you’d be friends with, you can communicate with.

Two local middle schools, one each in Glendale and Burbank, were on a list released Thursday identifying California schools where students have not met federal proficiency targets on standardized tests. Roosevelt Middle School in Glendale Unified and Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank Unified were among the roughly 2,500 schools that are being monitored for not meeting either math or English student achievement standards two years in a row. If the campuses do not meet their benchmarks within seven years, authorities could remove teachers and administrators at the school, according to the California Department of Education.

GLENDALE — About 50 Toll Middle School students protested Thursday against education cuts and teacher layoffs. Glenwood Road was filled with honking cars and chants of “Save our schools” and “No more cuts,” meant to show students’ solidarity with their teachers. “For our lovely teachers here, we’ll fight for them to stay,” said Melody Shahsavarani, a seventh-grader. “They are our second family.” Glendale Unified School District will eliminate between 60 and 80 teachers, officials said.

GLENDALE — The fate of three eighth-graders Monday was held by a jury of their seventh-grade peers. A guilty verdict would mean trash pickup. But students Arshen Charmahali, Christian Marquis and Livia Martorana knew what they were getting into when the applied for the role in the mock trial at Wilson Middle School. The Windsor Crime Scene Investigation traces a make-believe robbery in the school library. The project becomes an assembly hosted by an English, science and history class.