91214: Get Out and Vote

We have an important election coming up in March concerning our local community.

I am quite concerned about the turnout of registered voters in the 91214 zip code. A reliable source advised that in a local election about 20%-22% of registered voters actually vote and, in a presidential election, about 60% of registered voters actually vote in the 91214 zip code. We all should strive for 100% voter turnout.

For the first time we will have the opportunity to elect a person who actually lives and is involved in our area to the Glendale Unified School District board of education and to the Glendale Community College board of trustees. This is monumental. The candidates have invested their time, money and effort in educating us voters and we voters should respect that and make this election a record voter turnout.

Plus, ad you have read in the CV Weekly and have observed in other sources, there are a number of candidates for various other offices to be considered and voted upon.

I have made some of my choices and am thinking and considering several others. I am not going to tell anyone who to vote for; however, I will tell anyone and everyone to vote.

Come on, 91214: let’s get to that 100% turnout!

Joe Kroening

La Crescenta

Response to Candidates’ Article

We are writing in response to the article “Meet the GUSD Candidates, Part 1” Jan. 30. While the article contained a few misleading comments, the one we most wish to correct is “one of the criteria for the implementation of a territory transfer is to show that the District is doing a disservice to its students.”

That is not the case at all. The County Committee for School District Organization relies on nine conditions, contained in the CA Education Code, to evaluate the merits of a proposed school district territory transfer. None of those conditions requires petitioners to show a disservice by a District to its students, or any other deficiency. To suggest otherwise is inaccurate. The focus of the conditions is to ensure that an approved transfer would not significantly harm either District or disrupt the educational programs each of them provides.

Besides weighing the impacts of a proposed transfer, the Committee also considers whether there are other compelling educational reasons which support the need of a transfer … and the Committee found that there were, as demonstrated by their approval of the transfer petition.

The Education Code specifically provides for a territory transfer petition process in recognition that school district boundaries, usually set long ago, should be subject to review and change to address evolving local educational needs and priorities.

Providing all La Cañada Flintridge families with an educational experience that more closely reflects their priorities and aspirations has been the cornerstone of this petition effort for more than five decades.

Thank you.

Nalini Lasiewicz, Co-Chief Petitioner

La Cañada Flintridge

Tom Smith, Chair-UniteLCF!

Wheaton, IL