The La Cañada Flintridge City Council and La Cañada Unified School District Board of Education met for a special joint meeting on Tuesday to discuss their partnership and shared interest for the Sagebrush area.
All members of the two groups were in attendance, and each mentioned when they joined their respective organizations and how long they served. City Manager Dan Jordan and Superintendent Wendy Sinnette were also part of the meeting.
Mayor Rick Gunter and Board President Joe Radabaugh shared presentations, speaking on the interests the city and the district have and how they can better team up to complete more projects and long-term goals to improve the partnership for years to come.
As of now, the two organizations have teamed up to promote school safety and security, student education, support community parks and fields, and better community infrastructure, to name a few.
But both agreed that their partnership has been purely “transactional,” and nothing beyond that.
“We have done an admirable job part on a range of community issues over the years,” said Radabaugh. “However, some of us have started to kind of mull over the reality that we’re kind of designed against going after bigger ideas.”
Both leaders shared some initiatives that both the city and district could do together, like going green, being open to redevelopment opportunities, advancing security and safety, and promoting more youth initiatives.
“But if we work together and come up with our shared priorities, there’s a lot of overlap,” said Radabaugh. “How do we codify those as the ones that we want to really lean in together on?”
They discussed the possibility of having a mechanism designed to keep track of the progress and possibly having a separate team that consist of both city and district leaders to keep track of projects and long-term goals.
“It’s going to take commitment for both of us to say, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what it looks like yet. But yes, let’s figure that out,’’” said Radabaugh. “And how do we get long-term beyond the election cycles?”
They also discussed the possibility of having multiple meetings about various shared interests, but with different committees in place to help move progress along.
“This desire to do great things matters,” said Gunter, adding that it would be beneficial to move past transactional short-term projects.
The Board members and Council agreed with both the mayor and president.
“Everything has been jammed into joint-use and the pie hasn’t been made bigger,” said Councilman Keith Eich. “Until we make the pie bigger, we’re just going to be fighting over the same little pies. Let’s make the pie bigger.”
Councilman Kim Bowman shared the same sentiment.
“Gentlemen, my favorite words are governance and process, and you got me very excited,” said Bowman. “This is exactly what we need.”
Board member Dan Jeffries thought it would be a good idea for both the city manager and the superintendent to come up with some shared goals and projects that they could present to the members.
“The other thing that our district has always done is that we’re always very iterative,” said Jeffries. “That is, we start with an idea, take it small, and work it on up. And I think that might be a good approach for us to follow up here.”
Radabaugh said he is excited to start the process and make some progress in the shared interests.
“Let’s do something, because I’ve been here seven years, and we’re kind of spinning in the same exact stuff, year after year,” said Radabaugh. “We don’t have to go super fast. Let’s just get started.”
Councilwoman Terry Walker agreed and said that it has been hard to move past fields and recreation in joint-use meetings and is excited for this next chapter.
SAGEBRUSH ENDORSEMENT
The city and the district both reaffirmed their endorsement of a resolution that was passed in January that supports the Territory Transfer of the Sagebrush area.
The resolution lets students living in the Sagebrush area attend LCUSD schools and more than “265 of the approximate 530 students in the territory are currently permitted to attend LCUSD,” according to the agenda.
It is anticipated that the territory transfer petition will appear on the California State Board of Education’s agenda in January or March of 2024.
“What the State Board of Education will do is uphold the Los Angeles County Commission’s approval of the transfer or essentially override it by denying the transfer,” Sinnette told the Outlook Valley Sun. “If they uphold it, then the next step will be to determine the voting area for the Territory Transfer.”
Sinnette said that the UniteLCF citizens committee has made the case that the voting area should be limited to the Sagebrush area as those are the residents who are impacted.
“Widening the voting area, with Glendale being much larger than La Cañada Flintridge, would likely skew the outcome just based on the size of both cities,” said Sinnette.
Sinnette shared some history to the community members, Board and Council.
“When the city was incorporated in 1976, a small section of the La Cañada community was certified as GUSD,” said Sinnette. “Generally, the territory, which is west of Rosebank Drive to the city’s western border of Pickens Canyon, was not a part of LCUSD. As you look at that map today, you would not draw those boundaries as they were drawn.”
The territory transfer will result in “enhanced community identity toward La Cañada Flintridge among those residents and their children residing in the subject area,” read the agenda.
Both the city manager and superintendent state that the territory transfer will also result in greater physical, social and psychological association with the La Cañada Flintridge community and the educational needs of those residents and their children residing in the subject area.
“I think it’s really important that we’re here together to have each body reaffirm its commitment, because commitments are very integrated,” said Sinnette.
Sinnette also stated the territory transfer’s commitment to the Glendale Unified School District and its students.
“In our resolution, we’re also committed to Glendale Unified School District, and we would release all of the students in the territory who wish to stay with Glendale,” said Sinnette. “And to make that sort of very ease of use, they would only have to apply for the release to remain in Glendale one time. We would ensure that there wasn’t an annual re-verification that they had to continue to request if the territory did transfer.”
Radabaugh shared his interest in reaffirming this resolution.
“I think this is an informal reaffirmation, so we’re not taking an official vote, but I reaffirm what we did back in the January resolution,” said Radabaugh.
Jeffries also spoke in favor of the resolution.
“While this is entirely symbolic, since we both adopted this resolution unanimously already, I think it’s important for the community to understand and hopefully Sacramento to understand, that this is an issue that we are united in, that we all feel strongly about, that we’re all supportive of,” said Jeffries. “There’s no question in any of our minds that this is the right thing to do, and I think that’s sort of the message that we want to try and get as loudly as we can to Sacramento.”
First published in the December 7 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
