In January, the District received a letter alleging that its method of electing members of the Board of Election via an at-large election system violates the California Voting Rights Act. The letter also alleges that the District has a history of racially polarized voting. Since that time, a lawsuit has been filed to compel the District to move to trustee-area elections.

At-large elections occur when each trustee is elected by all voters within the District. Trustee-area elections, also known as district-based or ward elections, occur when each trustee must reside within the designated trustee-area boundary, and is elected only by the voters in that area.

No. This has nothing to do with school boundaries. This only affects how members of the Board of Education are elected. Those Board members do, however, vote on school boundaries when and if the issue is brought forward.

The Board held five public hearings and several publicly agendized discussions before submitting a map to the County Committee on School District Organization. That committee rejected the map presented by the District. Another three public sessions and discussions at Board meetings were held to gather community input before the Board voted on a preferred map. Input from those sessions were considered during the creation of the negotiated map.

Instead of voting for all five members of the Board of Education, you will vote for the trustee who represents your area of the District.

The first trustee-area elections will take place in 2020, according to the settlement agreed to by the District and the plaintiffs.

Racially polarized voting occurs when there is a difference between the choice of candidates preferred by voters in a protected class and the choice of candidates preferred by voters in the rest of the electorate.

No legal and statistical analysis to determine whether there is racially polarized voting in the District has been done.