Action Item: 7th period day
Due to lower-than-forecast Cost of Living Adjustments and several other budget factors, the Glendale School District is voting on a budget for 2025-2026 that would eliminate the 7th period at Rosemont, Toll, and Wilson Middle Schools and at Hoover, Glendale, Daily and Crescenta Valley High Schools.*
What we can do:
We are asking parents/guardians and students to email the District’s leader, Superintendent Dr. Watson, and the School Board. (You can copy and paste these email addresses: dwatson@gusd.net, kking@gusd.net, ddeal@gusd.net, ccoulter@gusd.net, kbruich@gusd.net, nfarid@gusd.net, ssahakian@gusd.net, kcross@gusd.net, igunnell@gusd.net, ttse@gusd.net).
In your message, ask the District leadership (who create the budget) to do 3 things:
1) Delay the vote on eliminating 7th period until a special meeting in early November or at the November 12th Board meeting. GUSD will have a better financial forecast from the state at that point and district staff will have more time to analyze where $5 million in savings might be found. GUSD will know whether or not the federal government will be pro- or anti-public education.
2) Work with community partners, including parents, to look for line items in the budget that may be cut that do not reduce salaries or wages for union workers in GUSD.
3) Re-survey teachers, families, and students with a survey that clarifies what is at stake, including the District’s own report (summarized below). You can watch the Board and District staff’s discussion here (Click on “7th period report” on the right-hand side). Nearly 12,000 students will be affected by this decision.
GUSD Report: IMPACTS ON STUDENTS
Dual Immersion, English Learners, Career/Technical Education, and students on IEPs who receive pull-out services would have no electives during the school day until 11th or 12th grade (unless they can do coursework outside normal school hours).
All other students would be limited to one elective period per year until 11th or 12th grade.
The only option for additional electives to be taken during summer school, off-campus at GCC, or at a “zero period” before the 8:30am school day begins.
53 FTE (full-time equivalent) jobs would be eliminated. Some teachers will lose jobs, and some teachers will see their teaching load reduced from 6 to 5 classes.
Each school site’s teaching force would vote on whether or not to keep the block schedules (4 blocks per day, 4 days a week, with one day a week having all 6 or 7 classes). Because teachers require 2 daily prep periods, it is highly likely that all school sites will revert to 6 periods per school day which means a more rushed schedule and possibly more homework for students.
*Due to specialized, restricted federal Title I funding and the small school size, Roosevelt Middle School would keep the 7 period blocks. Clark Magnet School would also keep 7 period blocks for reasons that aren’t entirely clear in the GUSD report.