School Board Trustees Will Be Elected Based On Where They Live In Dublin

DUBLIN,CA - From Dublin Unified School District: The Dublin Unified Board of Trustees approved a resolution at the July 24 Special Meeting to initiate the process of transitioning the District from “at-large” elections to “by-Trustee-area” elections beginning with the Board election scheduled for November 2018.

The Board’s approval of this transition begins a 90-day, legally mandated process in which community input is taken, public hearings are held and map options are developed and presented for the physical division of the city into five “by-trustee-areas”.

One Board Trustee, who resides in the trustee-area, will be chosen by voters residing in that particular area. A third-party demographer will lead this process on behalf of the District and will determine the parameters for equitable division of the city by population using legally permissible data points.

The Board must vote by Oct. 22 to accept a map, and to apply for a waiver from the State of California to commence this transition without sending it to a vote by the city’s electors. The waiver process has become commonplace for districts facing this transition. An electoral process would come at significant cost to the District and expose it to litigation under the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA).

The intent of a “by-trustee-area” system is to provide greater opportunity for diverse Board representation among candidates that might not be elected in an at-large system.

“This decision allows the district to focus on our mission to educate our students, our first priority,” Board President Megan Rouse said. “The Board has always strived to represent the entire Dublin community and listen to the input of all of our stakeholders. Changing how trustees are elected will not change that.”

The origin of this transition was a legal demand letter from a Southern California attorney, who requested the Board act to make this change under the CVRA. Cities and school districts throughout the state have been facing legal challenges to “at-large” systems. More than 140 school districts in the state of California have switched from at-large systems to the “by-trustee-area” model since the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) was passed in 2001.

We have created a page on our website under the “Parent Channel” heading with information on the CVRA process that the District will be undertaking. In addition, the District will be laying out its timeline for the 90-day window for determining a map to represent the District’s new “by-trustee-areas” for future elections and communicating it to the public by July 31.

If you have feedback on the Board on this topic, please go to the CVRA button on our website and it will direct you to a Google form where you can provide your input, questions and concerns.

Image via Dublin Unified School District