Glendale Unified School District

Last updated

Glendale Unified School District
Location
Glendale, California
United States
District information
Type Public
GradesPre K-12
SuperintendentDr. Darneika Watson (interim)
Schools32
Budget$296.22 million
Students and staff
Students26,744
Teachers1,000
Other information
Website gusd.net

The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States.

Contents

The school district serves the city of Glendale, portions of the city of La Cañada Flintridge and the unincorporated communities of Montrose and La Crescenta. [1] It consists of 20 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 4 high schools and 3 facilities for homeschoolers and special-needs students. [2]

In the 2008–2009 school year, the district served 26,744 students and expects enrollment to decline 1–2% in each of the next three years. As of 2002, it was the third-largest district in Los Angeles County and among the thirty-largest in the State of California. It is the 254th largest in the nation by student population. [3]

In 2009 the GUSD had 2,620 employees, of which about half are classroom teachers.

Beginning in the 2016–2017 school year, GUSD started officially commemorating the Armenian genocide, having April 24 off as a holiday. They are the first school district in the nation to do so. [4]

History

Early history (1879-1935)

In 1879, the now-defunct Sepulveda School District was formed to educate all children residing within the area of the former Rancho San Rafael. [5]

The Glendale Union High School District was formed in 1901. [6]

Glendale Junior College was founded in 1927 to serve the Glendale Union High School District. [7]

Formation (1936)

Glendale schools reorganized as the Glendale Unified School District in 1936. [8]

21st Century (2000-Present)

Term limits

School Board member Shant Sahakian first proposed term limits for elected School Board members in May 2018, proposing that School Board members can serve a maximum of three, four-year terms, for a total of twelve years of service on the Board of Education. The Board of Education unanimously approved the proposal at a January 2022 meeting. [9]

Anti-LGBTQ+ protests

In 2021, Tammy Tiber, a Glendale elementary school teacher, showed a video about celebrating LGBT pride to her third-grade class. This largely went unnoticed until Jordan Henry, a candidate for the Glendale City Council in 2022, received 1,300 pages of documents, including an email sent by Tiber regarding the lesson, he had requested under public records law. After receiving threats, Tiber was involuntarily transferred from her classroom for safety reasons. [10]

In May 2023, in response to a series of anti-LGBTQ+ protests in Glendale Unified School District and neighboring Los Angeles Unified School District, GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society, glendaleOUT and Somos Familia Valle released a joint statement denouncing efforts by some parents to undermine LGBTQ+ content within school programming and curricula. [11] Following an outbreak of violence at the June 6, 2023 Glendale Unified School District Board of Education meeting, GALAS, Armenian-American Action Network, and Southern California Armenian Democrats released a joint statement "calling attention to the collective safety of LGBTQ+ Armenians, the need for active allyship, and the dangers of alarmist and racist narratives about the Armenian immigrant population." [12]

In response to the June 6, 2023 incident, the Glendale City Council requested that their staff prepare a report on the formation of a human rights commission. The report was presented in December 2023. [13]

Demographics

In the GUSD, by 1988, Armenians along with students from the Middle East had become the largest ethnic group in the public schools, now having a larger number than the Latinos. Alice Petrossian, the GUSD director of intercultural education, stated that Burbank lies within the middle of other Armenian communities, so it attracted Armenians. [14] In 1987, the district had eight Armenian-speaking teachers and teaching aides, and that year had hired five additional Armenian-speaking teachers and teacher aides. [15] As of 1990, the largest immigrant group speaking an ethnic home language in the GUSD was the Armenians. [16] By 2004, over 33% of the Glendale district students were Armenian. That year, due to high levels of student absence around the Armenian Christmas (January 6) and the anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide (Red Sunday, April 24), the district considered making Armenian holidays school holidays, [17] eventually, starting in the 2016 year, the district started having April 24 off. [18]

Governance

The district is governed by a board of education consisting of five trustees who are elected to four-year terms. The board of education also appoints a superintendent to oversee day-to-day operations of the district, as well as a non-voting student representative who serves during the school year. Effective with the April 2017 election, board of education members are elected by geographical district instead of at-large. Starting with the 2020 California Primary election, Glendale Unified School District Board of Education election is being held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March to comply with the statewide election law (Senate Bill 415).

The current board of education is as follows:

Election results

3 April 2007 elections to the board of education
Candidate# of Votes % of VoteElected
Todd Hunt
9,248
21.4
Naira Khachatrian
2,302
6.5
Elizabeth Manasserian
4,965
14.1
Nayiri Nahabedian
7,575
21.5
*
Hasmig Aslanian
1,732
4.9
Mary Boger
11,011
31.3
*

Source: City Clerk, City of Glendale

Schools

Elementary schools (Kindergarten – Grade 6)

Middle schools (Grade 7 – Grade 8)

High schools (Grade 9 – Grade 12)

Other schools

Preschools

Safety

The district contracts with the Glendale Police Department for schools within Glendale, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for schools within Montrose and La Crescenta.

2023 Cyber Incident

In December 2023, the Glendale Unified School District fell victim to a ransomware attack carried out by the Medusa Ransomware Group. [19] The attack compromised the personal information of both students and staff. Attackers locked employees out of their systems and demanded a ransom for the safe return of sensitive PII and other confidential data, which included Social Security numbers, addresses, and financial information. [20] The district chose not to pay the ransom, resulting in the sensitive data being publicly exposed online. This incident is part of a growing trend of cyberattacks targeting K-12 institutions, disrupting school operations and endangering personal data.

Cybersurveillance of students

In 2012, the District hired Geo Listening for a pilot program to monitor public online activity of students at the Crescenta Valley, Glendale, and Hoover High Schools. While the school district has claimed that the program, now expanded to all of the District's schools, is meant to detect cyberbullying, critics have questioned whether it violates the privacy rights of students and whether the $40,500 spent on the program so far is well spent. [21]

Analysts working for Geo Listening comb through posts students from Glendale Unified School District schools make on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, reporting daily to school administrators. Reports include the student's user names, screen captures of their posts, and details on where they were when they made the post. An attorney with the ACLU characterized the program as "sweeping and far afield of what is necessary to ensure student safety." [21] [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glendale, California</span> City in California, United States

Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of 2023, Glendale had a Census-estimated population of 187,050, down 8,493 (–4.8%) from the 2020 United States census count of 196,543, which in turn was up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the 4th-most populous city in Los Angeles County and the 24th-most populous city in California. It is located about 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Crescenta-Montrose, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

La Crescenta-Montrose is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The community is bordered by Glendale to the south and west, La Cañada Flintridge to the east, and Angeles National Forest to the north. According to the United States Census Bureau, the La Crescenta-Montrose Census-Designated Place (CDP) measures about 3.4 square miles (8.8 km2), and the population was 19,997 at the 2020 census, up from 19,653 in 2010 and 18,532 in 2000.

Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) is a school district headquartered in Palos Verdes Estates, California with facilities in all four cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glendale High School (Glendale, California)</span> Public school in Glendale, California, United States

Glendale High School is a high school in Glendale, California, United States. The school is part of the Glendale Unified School District.

Temecula Valley Unified School District is a school district located in the southwestern portion of Riverside County, California, serving the city of Temecula and unincorporated parts of nearby Murrieta and French Valley. It is the fourth-largest school district in Riverside County. The district's Board of Education elections take place in November of even-numbered years and elected members to serve four-year terms. The Board of Education is composed of five members, elected by geographical districts called Trustee Areas.

Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) is a K–12 school district headquartered in Calabasas, California, United States. The district, serving the western section of the San Fernando Valley and the eastern Conejo Valley in Los Angeles County, consists of 14 public schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Neon Art</span> Art museum in Glendale, California, United States

The Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Glendale, California, United States, is an educational art museum that exists for the preservation, collection, and interpretation of neon art. The first museum devoted to art that incorporates neon lighting, it only exhibits art in electric media, including kinetic art and outstanding examples of historic neon signs. The collection includes neon signs from the Brown Derby and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Pomona Unified School District or PUSD serves approximately 30,000 Pre-K-12 students and 17,000 adult learners at 44 schools in Pomona and Diamond Bar, California. It is located 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, and is the fourth-largest school district in Los Angeles County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverly Hills Unified School District</span> School district of Beverly Hills, California

The Beverly Hills Unified School District is a public school district based in the city of Beverly Hills, California. It was unified into an elementary and high school district in 1936. Serving the city of Beverly Hills, it consists of one middle school, two elementary schools, and one high school.

The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) was founded in 1874 and is a unified school district for Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and Altadena, in the U.S. state of California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School</span> Public magnet secondary school in La Crescenta, California, United States

Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School is a high school located in Glendale, California, United States. The school is managed as a part of the Glendale Unified School District.

AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School is an Armenian-American private school located in Winnetka, Los Angeles, California, United States. Located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, it was founded in 1976 as Saint Peter-AGBU School near the corner of Louise Avenue and Sherman Way on the grounds of Saint Peter Armenian Apostolic Church.

Burbank Unified School District is a school district headquartered in Burbank, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simi Valley Unified School District</span> School district in Ventura County, California

Simi Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) is a school district in Ventura County, California. The district serves students from the city of Simi Valley, the census-designated place of Santa Susana, and other adjacent unincorporated areas. SVUSD operates 18 elementary schools, three middle schools, four high schools, one adult school, and one independent study school. During the 2014–15 school year, the district's enrollment numbered about 18,000. The current superintendent is Dr. Hani Youssef, who has served since July 2022.

San Marino Unified School District is a school district located in San Marino, California.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in the United States, with only the New York City Department of Education having a larger student population. During the 2022–2023 school year, LAUSD served 565,479 students, including 11,795 early childhood education students and 27,740 adult students. During the same school year, it had 24,769 teachers and 49,231 other employees. It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County after the county government. The school district's budget for the 2021–2022 school year was $10.7 billion, increasing to $12.6 billion for the 2022–2023 school year.

Los Alamitos Unified School District (LAUSD) is a school district in Los Alamitos, Orange County, California. The school district area includes the communities of Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach, and Surfside. It also includes portions of Cypress. It also includes an area with a Long Beach street address.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a significant Armenian American population. As of 1990, this single area holds the largest Armenian American community in the United States as well as the largest population of Armenians in the world outside Armenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society</span> LGBTQIA+ rights non-governmental organization

GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society is one of the first LGBTQIA+ rights non-governmental organizations founded by Armenian Americans. GALAS was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in West Hollywood, California. Its mission is to serve and support the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals of Armenian descent, to promote their human rights protection, and to advocate for the change of public policy around LGBTQ+ issues.

glendaleOUT is a grassroots organization dedicated to LGBT+ advocacy in Glendale, California.

References

  1. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Los Angeles County, CA" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. pp. 6, 10 (PDF pp. 7, 11/19). Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Overview & Accolades / District Overview". www.gusd.net. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2008–09" (PDF). nces.ed.gov. National Center for Education Statistics. November 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  4. ↑ Mikailian, Arin (March 16, 2016). "Glendale Unified officially adds day off to commemorate Armenian Genocide". Glendale News-Press. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ Los Angeles County Committee On School District Organization (December 21, 2016). "Petitioners' Brief in Support of Petition for Territory Transfer Including Conditions Affecting Reorganization Proposals" (PDF). Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  6. ↑ "The History of Our School and City - Our Glendale". 1977. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  7. ↑ "history" . Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  8. ↑ Arroyo, Juliet (2005). Early Glendale. Arcadia Publishing. p. 103. ISBN   0-7385-2990-7.
  9. ↑ "GUSD School Board President Shant Sahakian's Term Limits Proposal Approved by Board of Education". Asbarez . January 25, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  10. ↑ Blume, Howard; Gomez, Melissa (May 11, 2022). "Glendale third-grade teacher showed gay pride videos. A year later, furious debate erupts". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Expressing Our Collective Concern with Local Spread of Anti-LGBTQ+ Sentiment". May 30, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  12. ↑ "In Response to the Recent Events in Los Angeles Area Schools". June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Report: Direction on the Formation of Human Relations Coalition" . Retrieved August 19, 2024.
  14. ↑ Clifford, Frank and Anne C. Roark. "Racial Lines in County Blur but Could Return : Population: Times study of census finds communities far more mixed. Some experts fear new ethnic divisions." Los Angeles Times . May 6, 1991. p. 2. Retrieved on March 24, 2014.
  15. ↑ Arax, Mark and Esther Schrader. "County Braces for Sudden Influx of Soviet Armenians." Los Angeles Times . March 8, 1988. online page 2. Print: Vol.107, p.1. Available from Cengage Learning, Inc. Retrieved on July 2, 2014.
  16. ↑ Der-Martirosian, Claudia, Georges Sabagh, and Mehdi Bozorgmehr. "Subethnicity: Armenians in Los Angeles" (Chapter 11). In: Light, Ivan Huberta and Parminder Bhachu. Immigration and Entrepreneurship: Culture, Capital, and Ethnic Networks. Transaction Publishers, year unstated. Start page: 243. ISBN   1-4128-2593-8, 9781412825931. Cited: p. 250-251.
  17. ↑ Pang, Kevin. "Glendale Unified May Add Armenian Holiday." Los Angeles Times . February 8, 2004. Retrieved on July 2, 2014.
  18. ↑ "GUSD Becomes First District in US to Close Schools in Observance of April 24". The California Courier. March 22, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  19. ↑ Tkachev, Timofey. "GUSD Cyber Attack Incident". The Spartan Scroll. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  20. ↑ Solis, Nathan (April 26, 2024). "Glendale teachers surprised to find their taxes already filed -- fraudulently". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  21. 1 2 Ceasar, Stephen (September 14, 2013). "Glendale district says social media monitoring is for student safety". Los Angeles Times.
  22. ↑ "Calif. School District Monitors Kids' Social Media". ABC News. September 16, 2013.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.