By Charly SHELTON

Last week, the first of two public forums was held to gather opinions from residents in the La Cañada Unified School District about the possible Sagebrush territory transfer. Another forum was held last night, Wednesday, to gather opinions from residents in the Glendale Unified School District. At both events, tensions were high and opinions were outspoken.

The Sagebrush debate has been ongoing sporadically since the 1960s, with this current campaign beginning in 2013. The area west of Rosebank Drive in La Cañada to Pickens Canyon, known as the Sagebrush territory, shares the La Cañada zip code and town name, but falls within the school district of Glendale. As of August of this year, there were about 356 students from Sagebrush attending GUSD schools. The hope of UniteLCF, the pro-transfer movement, is to have Sagebrush transferred into LCUSD officially so the families of that area can send their children to La Cañada schools. GUSD was in transfer negotiations with UniteLCF and LCUSD several years ago, but has since declined to negotiate any further as an agreement between sides could not be met. GUSD has, however, pledged to approve any releases requested by Sagebrush families who wish to send their students to LCUSD schools by permit.

According to GUSD enrollment data in its Sagebrush FAQ packet, over the last five years 147 Sagebrush students have been released by GUSD to attend LCUSD in an effort to “mitigate the upheaval of a forced transfer for the families in the Sagebrush territory who choose to continue attending GUSD schools.” This is in addition to the 356 who still attend GUSD.

The end of negotiations led to the formation of UniteLCF, which began circulating a petition for transfer that gathered 724 verified signatures and was filed with the County Registrar’s Office. The case was submitted to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization at the Los Angeles County Office of Education. It began proceedings on the matter in September and ordered that two public forums be held, one in each district, to gather input from residents on the proposed transfer. Last week’s forum was held in LCUSD at its district offices, and last night’s forum was held in GUSD at Crescenta Valley High School.

In both forums, the LACCSDO sat as the committee to hear from the public firsthand.

Last week’s forum was contentious, with nearly equal support from attendees on both sides of the issue. About half of the approximately 200 in attendance were pro-transfer, and a long line of speakers cited pro transfer reasons from safety to community strength to happiness itself. Grant Hoffspread, Sagebrush resident and father of three students who have transferred via release to LCUSD, quoted the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence in reference to the call for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“What is one of the well-established pillars of happiness by research that’s been conducted over decades?” Hoffspread asked. “Two of the seminal and most publicized studies of individual happiness were run by Harvard professor Robert Waldinger and Stanford professor Gregory Walton. The Harvard study was over 77 years, the Stanford study involved thousands of people. The conclusions of these studies were identical – with strong ties to your local community, you are much more likely to be happier, physically healthier and live longer. For 50 years, we have been denied being a full part of this community; we ask that you approve this transfer and give our kids the best possible future.”

The other side of the floor had similar support from anti-transfer speakers including from Emily Lanigan, fifth generation resident of the Crescenta Valley, whose great grandmother from La Cañada met her great grandfather from Montrose while attending a GUSD school 80 years ago.

“I want to read you something about the unification of communities. ‘It promotes patriotism and community identity, it enhances security and improves public safety. It improves self-governance and the benefits of economic and community resources can be shared within a community and not outside.’ I’ve just read to you excerpts from an essay entitled, ‘The Benefits of Fascism,’ yet the UniteLCF benefits of territory transfer are almost identical,” Lanigan said. “To separate and segregate Sagebrush students from the rest of the Crescenta Valley would break so many of the bonds that this community has formed in the last 80 years. Tearing Sagebrush students out of GUSD wouldn’t unite La Cañada, it would instead rip apart the Crescenta Valley from Tujunga to Hahamonga.”

The second forum was held last night after press time for this issue. Check CV Weekly next week for full coverage of that event and for more information on the issue overall, search “Sagebrush” on CVWeekly.com.

  Charly Shelton