By Mary O’KEEFE

Last week, CV Weekly presented some of the issues facing the Glendale Unified School District. Today we introduce three candidates – Jennifer Freemon, Joy McCreary and Jeremy Spurley – running for the board of education and give a glimpse into their history and how they will address some of those issues.

Incumbent Jennifer Freemon is serving her first term on the GUSD board of education. She is a mom of three and a former teacher who is married to a teacher.

“I went to Oxy [Occidental College] and was still in the credential program when I taught at Toll Middle School,” Freemon said.

She taught for eight years, which included three years as the water polo and swim coach at Hoover High School.

She left her teaching job in 2006 because she had small children at home, and she shared memories of her teaching years.

“I loved it,” she said. “I loved being part of the kids’ [life], watching them grow and helping to shape who they would become as adults.”

She added she sees both sides of having children in school, from that of teacher and of parent. One of her children attends Mountain Avenue Elementary School, one is at Roosevelt Middle School in the dual immersion program and one is at Crescenta Valley High School. She is a member of the PTAs at both the elementary and middle school.

She has learned about student issues not only from her years as a teacher but also as a mother.

“I learned how really important that student voice is,” she said.

She added that she realizes kids don’t always articulate their opinions in a way adults do but it is important to listen.

“Listen really carefully, listen between the lines,” she said.

GUSD will be facing a few challenges in the years to come including the budget, the Sagebrush decision, changes in school start times and mental health issues.

“I stand by the approach [the District] took [toward the] Sagebrush appeal,” she said.

One of the criteria for the implementation of a territory transfer is to show that the District is doing a disservice to its students. Freemon feels the GUSD schools are strong and serve the community.

Freemon said the Sagebrush battle will not end in a fast decision.

“We were told that it will be a two-to-three year wait [for a decision],” she said.

“Then the other part of the [appeal] is who gets to vote. Whatever the decision, it has to come back to the area for a vote and there is still some contention around that.”

Late start is another issue facing the District. Senator Anthony Portantino’s law requires schools to push back their start times, middle schools to 8 a.m. and high schools to 8:30 a.m.

“It has never been a philosophical question,” she said. “We are in compliance at our middle schools. But at our high schools what does that mean for supervision?”

Another issue is school safety and student mental health. She relayed a story of her son, who attends Mountain Avenue, admitting to her that there are times when he is afraid to go to school.

“Just out of the blue he said he doesn’t always feel safe,” she said.

She said these fears might rise from national discourse but, when considering the recent lockdowns at CVHS, danger appears real. Although there was no threat at CVHS, Freemon said those drills gave the District a lot to talk to about from how they responded to what can be done in the future.

“You can’t talk about school safety without talking about mental health,” she said. “Most of our kids [in the CV area] don’t qualify for Medicare coverage … They have insurance but parents can’t [afford] to pay out-of-pocket costs.”

She said she is aware that schools in the Crescenta Valley face different issues than other parts of the District but those issues are equally important and valid.

“To bridge this gap we need to continue to have a discussion,” she said.

She said the advantage of having the zoned areas of voting is that each area has a voice but it is important to remember decisions affect the entire District.

Another candidate on the ballot is Joy McCreary and, to paraphrase Indiana Jones, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”

Although Indy meant it a little differently it can easily pertain to McCreary who, at 23, is the youngest candidate running for the board position; however, the miles she has traveled to get to this race have been many.

She said she has been thinking about being on the board of education since she was a fourth grade student at Mountain Avenue Elementary and has always been interested in the organizational aspect of each of the schools she attended. She has some impressive role models: her grandfather taught at Glendale Community College back when it was still part of GUSD. Her grandmother was a career teacher at Toll Middle School and ended her career as the vice president of girls, when that was a position. Her dad has been teaching in GUSD for 24 years, and her mother has served on PTA boards for about 20 years from Mountain Avenue to Rosemont Middle to Crescenta Valley High schools. McCreary is now a teacher at a Title I school in the San Fernando Valley. She graduated from UCLA with degrees in German, political science and international development studies. She is now working at Loyola Marymount on her master’s in urban education with specificity in policy and administration.

McCreary’s experience in leadership began in the GUSD schools, serving as associated student body class president for all four years at Crescenta Valley High School. During those years she learned how to work with teachers, students, administrators and the community. In addition to ASB, McCreary served on the GUSD board of education – the first junior on the school board and only the second CVHS student to serve on it. There she learned more about the district-at-large and how to work, and create, a budget.

The area of mental health and the District is one that she is familiar with. McCreary was a CVHS student in 2012 when a student jumped to his death on campus. That incident helped shape her awareness of students’ mental health and what can and needs to be done, not only in the wake of a tragedy but proactively.

“I think the biggest thing that needed to be done was the wrap-around service for kids,” she said. “I loved that the PTSA put stickers that [read] ‘You are loved’ on every one of our lockers. I thought that was exemplary but I also think trauma follows you. I think the biggest realization [when I graduated] was that, yes, I left Crescenta Valley High School and, yes, this happened eight years ago but it is still something that haunts me. I know it haunts [many of] my peers.”

She added that there should be some way to communicate with higher education institutions what, if any, traumas students faced while attending high school.

“Just looking physiologically, trauma affects brain development and you had 2,600 kids who were really affected by this,” she said. “We need to be thinking of how we can best address the mental health needs of our kids.”

She knows that gun violence and school safety worries many students and wants to find ways to implement programs that are inclusive and help support kids.

The territory transfer known as Sagebrush is a personal issue for McCreary because she lives in the Sagebrush area.

One of the comments in favor of the transfer is that those living in the Sagebrush area never felt like they were part of a community.

“That has always been the silliest defense to me. I never felt like I wasn’t part of the [Crescenta Valley] community,” she said. “No matter how far west I went I never felt I wasn’t part of the community. I actually think this community has done an exemplary job of embracing me and embracing who I am.”

She feels the District was right in appealing the decision.

McCreary did add that the District should be talking to Sagebrush parents, letting them know what GUSD schools have to offer.

“I went to one of the best high schools in the nation and was able to graduate and now am paying it forward,” she said of her decision to run for school board.

Jeremy Spurley is also vying for a seat on the board of education. He grew up in Glendale but recently with his wife bought a house in the Crescenta Valley area. They have one young child who is not yet in school. Spurley is a Hoover High School graduate.

He is currently working as the dean of students at Las Palmas Middle School within the Covina Valley Unified School District. Working with middle schoolers can be challenging but Spurley likes this age of growing awareness.

“It’s a very rewarding time to work with [kids] because it is really the make it or break it time for students,” he said.

Spurley added this is a time when students begin to look at education through a different lens and they can either decide to “run with it” and go on to high school to succeed or have a more difficult time.

He spends a lot of time with students and understands the challenges they face but is also familiar with the administrative side. He deals with those challenges on a daily basis as dean of students.

He noted that there are similar issues that both Covina and Glendale school districts face, including vaping and school safety.

“I am running on a platform of school safety, equity innovation and college access for all,” Spurley said.

Vaping, declining enrollment, school safety and mental health are all issues a school board will have to face, Spurley said.

In his capacity as dean of students, he is in charge of creating and conducting safety drills at his school including active shooter drills.

“We have a [drill] once a month,” he said.

He said it is important to have discussions in the classroom of school safety so if something happens no one is surprised at what a lockdown looks like.

“They need to be authentic drills,” he added.

If elected, he wants to work to empower school leaders and teachers, and wants each school site to have a voice in what programs work best for them.

“I want to let them bring in their own innovative [ideas],” he said.

The budget is another issue faced by the District with declining enrollment an ever-increasing problem. Spurley said that it is important to make the Glendale Unified School District more attractive to those families who are looking for the best for their children. He said the Covina District offers more technology classes, including more coding programs, and he wants to implement more at GUSD.

As to Sagebrush, Spurley supports the decision that the GUSD board made to appeal.

Prior to taking his present job, Spurley taught physical education at Mountain Avenue Elementary so he knows the Sagebrush students and families well.

He believes that the job of those in the kindergarten to 12th grade system is to prepare students for their future, to get them not just to graduation but to make sure they are qualified for a four-year college career. Although Crescenta Valley and Clark Magnet high schools have a strong graduation rate of 96%, the District as a whole is 88% and he feels that can be improved upon.

In an unusual twist, Spurley was a student of fellow candidate Jennifer Freemon. She taught his eighth grade class at Toll Middle School.

“One of her culminating assignments was you actually had to write a letter to your [future] self,” he said.

The letter was then delivered back to the student on the day of his/her high school graduation.

“She was there at [my] 2005 graduation,” he said.

For Spurley, serving on the school board is a way to give back.

“I began my career in education here [at Mountain Avenue],” he said. “I am looking to give back to the community that gave me so much.”

  Mary Okeefe