Joal Ryan and Shant Sahakian face off for Glendale school board seat

Glendale school board candidates Joal Ryan and Shant Sahakian are vying for a seat to represent District D, which encompasses southeast Glendale, an area that stretches from Adams Hill to Chevy Chase Canyon, leading up to the April 4 election.

For Ryan, among the most pressing issues facing the school district is its poor enrollment retention, which she blames for weakening the district’s financial foundation.

She blames the dip in the number of students in middle and high schools on their departures to attend charter or private schools, and sees “no one from the [Glendale Unified School District] making a pitch for them to stay,” she said in an email.

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“As a school board member, the first thing I will do is become that person,” she said. “No family leaves the [Glendale Unified School District] without knowing about all the wonderful offerings our world-class school system has to offer their child.”

Another issue is the need to acknowledge the potential for new national policies to greatly reduce federal funding for public schools.

“Holding a ‘what if’ discussion now, before any hard times come, is the wise thing to do,” said Ryan, who is the mother of a son who attends Mark Keppel’s Korean dual-language immersion program.

If elected, she said she would bring “pragmatism” and “progressive values” to the board and tap into the listening skills she’s acquired as a journalist as well as her experience as a Glendale Unified parent.

For Ryan, the school board’s district-based representation marks a new opportunity for someone to scrutinize budgets and speak up at meetings on behalf of their part of the community, she said.

“As a GUSD parent, as a homeowner and as a longtime resident, the challenges of my District D constituents are my challenges — their questions are my questions,” she added.

To improve the district’s career-technical education programs, school officials need to ensure the equity of resources at Clark Magnet, Hoover, Glendale and Crescenta Valley high schools, she said, adding that the district needs to prepare the largest number of students for the fields with the most jobs.

Coding “should be treated as a second language that all kids can and should learn” she said, and it should be taught at all four high schools during after-school programs at a minimum.

With healthcare jobs projected to grow across the Los Angeles region during the next seven years, “all GUSD students must be able to access the training and education opportunities afforded by [Crescenta Valley High’s] Academy of Science and Medicine,” she said, adding that if a student who lives in Montrose is “best served” by the construction program available at Glendale High, officials need to make sure the student is aware of that opportunity.

For Sahakian, one of the most immediate issues facing Glendale Unified is its budget, he said, citing a need to make cuts and find new revenue sources.

He also recognizes a need for school officials to keep innovating when it comes to technology, and he would advocate for more technology education.

He said when he thinks about his infant son starting school in a few years, and ultimately graduating from Glendale schools, he wonders what the world will be like nearly 20 years from now.

“I can’t even imagine how different the world is going to be for him. I think we get so bogged down in talking about temporary issues — we’re really missing the big picture,” he said. “How do we make public schools that prepare students for the 21st century?”

If elected, Sahakian said he would approach the school board with “a focus on solutions rather than roadblocks” and would work to bolster students’ financial literacy so they graduate knowing how credit cards and student loans work.

He said he thinks students would benefit from training in how to best use social media, and that school officials need to place a greater focus on each student’s mind, body and soul.

“I think we need a school district that adopts a comprehensive mental health and wellness program,” Sahakian said. “We have a lot of work to do when it comes to mental heath.”

He wants each of Glendale’s roughly 30 schools to offer STEAM programs, focusing on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Sahakian’s background is both in the business and arts fields as president of Sedna Solutions, a marketing, website design and public relations firm.

He said when he thinks about how career-technical education programs can improve, officials need to increase the opportunities students have to belong to programs, citing career-technical education as “an essential part of providing a 21st-century education” and not just an extracurricular activity.

He’d also focus on enhancing partnerships with community organizations so students can be hired by companies out of high school or hear from experts who can visit local classrooms and share what they do.

“It expands in our students’ minds [about] what’s possible in their lives,” he said.

kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan