UniteLCF! announced this week that its petition for a territory transfer has been certified by the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office as having sufficient signatures to move forward. This marks the beginning of the formal process that will place the petition on the agenda of the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization (County Committee), which will make a determination on the matter.

The petition calls for the Sagebrush area of the City of La Cañada Flintridge to be transferred from the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) to the La Cañada Unified School District (LCUSD). Given concerns raised by members of the GUSD Mountain Avenue community, the petitioners have excluded the GUSD-owned lot on Ocean View Boulevard from the boundaries of the territory to be transferred.

Volunteers from UniteLCF! canvassed the Sagebrush area beginning in February of this year gathering signatures from registered voters residing in the area who support the proposed transfer from GUSD to LCUSD. The petition and the accompanying signature pages were hand-delivered on June 29 to the L.A. County Office of Education (LACOE) for review and certification.

The County Registrar’s Office determined that 1,606 registered voters reside in the Sagebrush area, and that UniteLCF! needed to gather 25% in validated signatures for the petition to be certified. The volunteers reached nearly 50% of the registered voters residing in Sagebrush and submitted 724 verified signatures, much greater than the 402 required to move forward. Canvas tallies showed that during the signature drive 95% of those reached in person supported the transfer, and signed the petition.

Next in the process is for LACOE staff to formally notify the County Committee at its next regular meeting that the petition has been received and certified. While not definitive at this time, the notification could be made as early as Sept. 7. The County Committee then has 60 days to conduct two public hearings on the petition, one to be held in each of the two affected school districts.

“The certification of our petition begins the process of having the County Committee hear the voice of the people. Our efforts for a territory transfer are about empowering children and families who live in Sagebrush to be on equal footing with the rest of the La Cañada Flintridge community,” said Tom Smith, chair of UniteLCF. “Our goal is to provide them a greater sense of safety, educational parity, inclusiveness and belonging in their hometown. For over 50 years the Sagebrush residents and parents have sought this transfer and we are determined to be successful.”

Historical information and campaign updates are on the UniteLCF! website, https://unitelcf.wordpress.com.

Submitted by UniteLCF!