First published in the May 12 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
The La Cañada Unified School Board tabled adoption of a resolution that would have modified the end-of-school time for La Cañada High School and given the school’s sports teams an extra hour to use the fields.
The district needs to modify the agreement, which previously recognized that LCHS’s hours of usage ended at 5 p.m., because of Senate Bill 328 — a bill authored by state Sen. Anthony Portantino of La Cañada Flintridge.
The bill requires middle schools and high schools start no earlier than 8 a.m. and end the day no later than 8:30 p.m. With other school districts having to transition to new start times, LCHS needs to push back its end time to accommodate later start times for after-school activities and travel time for athletic teams.
The resolution would have also transferred $40,000 to a special fund to purchase safety lighting for Foothill Intermediate School and elementary school sites, a move that would give user groups an additional 30 minutes to use the facilities.
In addition, the resolution would have transferred $10,000 to the special fund to maximize the field space of the play area at Palm Crest Elementary, which is currently under construction.
Board members decided to put the resolution on hold following a decision made by a joint-use committee, which includes representatives from the city of La Cañada Flintridge, the school district and youth sports programs, to deny approval of LCUSD’s proposed time change.
The district has worked with user groups to find solutions to the time change, and the La Cañada Field Sports Coalition, which represents the youth sports teams that use LCUSD fields, has agreed to requests made by LCUSD.
“As far as the user groups, we already have sort of a gentleman’s agreement and have already, for the last seven years, moved to 5:30 p.m. and we’ve already agreed to move [to] 6 p.m. as a sports coalition. Baseball has already done it; soccer will do that, too,” said Marco Quezada, current representative for the user groups.
“What it boils down to is that we’re ready to move to 6 p.m. for the school, and I think that’s where we are as a sports coalition,” he added.
Board member Kaitzer Puglia said she appreciated Quezada’s comments and “that the user groups are really ready to move forward, to really put the students and the needs of the district first. … I think it’s really important to show that there’s so much dialogue and communication and people working together to find a solution.”
The user groups and LCUSD will reach out to city officials to inform them of the agreement ahead of the of the joint-use committee’s meeting scheduled for May 26. Superintendent Wendy Sinnette assured the governing board that district staff members are working on gathering data requested by LCF Mayor Terry Walker that provides a breakdown of the various schedules for high school programs.
Sinnette said she is hopeful that the city will sign off on the resolution based on the data and agreement with the user groups.
“We did commit to an agenda item to continue discussions and dialogue and the data would be fed before that to them. Hopefully, we make some progress and see where we can go,” said Joe Radabaugh, governing board member who is also part of the joint-use committee.
