Glendora Unified Salutes Teachers, Saves Their Jobs

Monday night’s meeting of the School Board first featured Glendora Unified thanking its retiring teachers for their service, and backed up their words later in the evening when it moved to rescind recent teacher layoffs.

As part of an annual tradition, the School Board met earlier than usual Monday, hosting teachers and administrators in a lighthearted mini-event as they honored six retiring teachers throughout the district who have given a combined 92 years of service to Glendora Unified. However, after everyone was honored, the room was cleared out and reset for the proper School Board meeting.

The Board’s first order of business was lauding the recent girls CIF division champions from Glendora High School, who were well-represented at the meeting and got to hear adulation for their accomplishment from the community. Second up, the local Soroptimist group presented their grant awards to teachers for the upcoming school year.

However, everything else during the evening seemed like a warmup act for budget discussions, as a couple dozen teachers packed in to the meeting as a sign of solidarity. And they were not disappointed, as in light of and the additional funds for education in it, the School Board moved to rescind teacher pink slips that had been handed out in advance of the expected budget shortfall.

“We were looking at a $349 per student loss, and now have flat funding, which is good news,” said district Superintendent Robert Voors. “We don’t want these teachers out there fishing for other jobs.”

After Voors gave his report, which included the somewhat-cheery budget news, Assistant Superintendent Marc Chaldu have a much more in-depth look at the budget situation, which tempered feelings somewhat. Although a greater-than-expected revenue came in to the state, what that really means for education is simply that it will be continued to be funded at the level it has been for 2010-2011. Moreover, this is only approximately 80 percent of funds promised by the state under Proposition 98, the rest being in deferred payments which may never come.

After Chaldu’s PowerPoint presentation, the board moved on to briefly discuss District of Choice, a program which was referred to as a “lifeboat” in a declining-enrollment district. 928 students came to Glendora through District of Choice in 2010-2011.

And finally, in taking comments from the community, Glendora Teachers Association President Wayne Stam got up and made comments that called for an end to acrimony between teachers and administrators. Stam sincerely thanked the School Board for moving to rescind pink slips.

“I’ve gained a lot of respect and esteem for the board tonight,” said Stam.