FAQs

In this section you can find answers to some of the frequently asked questions that Elizabeth has received from voters and community members. More will be added. If you have any questions, please email ereuter4gusd@gmail.com

Parental Notification

Parental Rights Notification Policies are all over the news right now.
What is happening in Glendora Unified School District?

• A parental rights policy was brought to GUSD board from community members in the 2023-24 school year. The board eventually brought it to a vote on 10/9/23 and in a 3-2 vote, did NOT adopt a parental rights notification policy. 

• My reasons for voting no were:

• I spoke with many counselors, teachers and administrators, EVERYONE agrees that it is very important to have a parent or trusted adult involved with any important issue a student faces. GUSD employees work as quickly as possible to get parents involved, and I trust them to do so. 

• It is very important to me to keep GUSD students safe, they may need some extra time to decide how to talk to their families about many issues. 

• The 48 hour timeline imposed by this policy was unrealistic.

• Lack of resources to fight the State of California on this issue. AB 1955 was approved by the Governor on 7/15/2024. Attorney General Bonta is taking legal actions against school district who adopt these policies. GUSD has limited budget to run this district, I do not feel it is responsible to our tax payers or students to use budget dollars (needed for textbook adoptions, employee pay raises, etc) to fight a legal battle. (https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab1955)

  Declining Enrollment

What is declining enrollment and what is GUSD doing to address it? 

• Nearly 75% of school districts in the State of California are experiencing a loss of students enrolling in their district every year. (https://www.ppic.org/publication/factors-and-future-projections-for-k-12-declining-enrollment/)

• Glendora finds itself among those districts. The graduating class of 2024 have approximately 500 students, our kindergarten class of 2024 has approximately 300 students. We have been in declining enrollment since 2014.

• School districts are funded by the State of California by the number of students attending school on a daily basis. 

• In order to address declining enrollment in GUSD, we need to keep a close eye on our expenses. 85% of our budget goes to salaries and benefits, so when an employee retires, we need to take a close look to see if that position needs to be refilled. The Board is also taking a close look at all of our properties to make sure we are utilizing all properties to maximum capacity or if we could gain revenue by leasing or selling certain properties. 

• All of our expenses need to be evaluated to make sure we are being responsible with tax payer dollars.

Safety

Safety continues to be a high priority with Glendora Unified families.
What are we doing to keep our students and employees safe?

• Raptor ID screening systems at all sites for visitors

• Upgrading our communications systems

• Catapult phone app for broadcasting messages among employees

• New fencing at Goddard and Sandburg Middle Schools to keep public off school property (during school and day care hours, fields are converted to public use at a certain time of the day per site needs)

• Digital citizenship lessons for students about how to be safe online. 

• Securely software that identifies if a student is making a search on a dangerous topic or typing key words that trigger an alert to an administrator who will contact teacher, councilor, or even parent depending on subject matter.