Vallecitos School District transitions to elections by trustee area

Future Vallecitos School District board elections and board member appointments will be by trustee area.

A 4-0 Vallecitos School District board vote June 25, with Sally Forester absent, approved one of the three map options presented to the board.

"It's gone smoothly," said Vallecitos Superintendent Maritza Koeppen.

In 2002, the state legislature and Governor Davis amended the California Elections Code to prohibit the use of at-large elections of school district governing board members if the at-large elections impair the ability of a politically protected class to elect candidates of its choice or to influence the outcome of an election.

An attorney has been sending multiple letters at a time to school districts threatening lawsuits if those districts do not change to trustee area elections. The Vallecitos School District did not receive the threat of a lawsuit.

"We decided to do it on our own," Koeppen said. "It was in the best interests of the district to be proactive and start the process."

Koeppen is also the principal of Vallecitos Elementary School. The Vallecitos School District is one of four in San Diego County with a single elementary school and a superintendent who also serves as the school principal. The other three single-school districts are the Dehesa, San Pasqual, and Spencer Valley (Santa Ysabel) districts.

The San Pasqual Union School District has begun the transition to elections by trustee area; the December 2018 board meeting included passage of a resolution to transition to elections by trustee area and this year's June 24 meeting approved an agreement with Cooperative Strategies to provide demographic information services.

"We're not too far down the road, but we have started," said San Pasqual superintendent and principal Mark Burroughs.

The Spencer Valley Elementary School District has received a quote from a demographic consultant but has not taken any action towards changing the election of its directors from at large to by trustee area. Spencer Valley School, which educates children from kindergarten through eighth grade, has two classrooms and had 40 students during the 2018-19 school year. The Spencer Valley Elementary School District is the only remaining school district in San Diego County with only three board members.

The Dehesa School District has no plans to convert from at-large elections. One advantage of an at-large system is that voters can recall more than one board member and, in San Diego County, the Dehesa district is the most recent with a recall election removing more than one board member.

A January 1998 recall election removed four Dehesa board members; in that election, 327 of the district's 1,077 registered voters cast votes in favor or against the recall and for the board members who replaced the recalled incumbents.

Even under an at-large system, separate recall petitions are needed for a recall election against more than one board member. Separate recall petitions are still possible if the board is elected by trustee area, but only voters within that trustee area would be able to sign the petition and vote in the recall election.

The minimum number of valid signatures for a recall election is based on the number of registered voters rather than the population. If a voter area has between 1,000 and 10,000 registered voters the signatures of at least 25 percent of the voters are necessary for a recall election to occur while signatures of at least 30 percent of the registered voters are needed for a territorial unit, or a district in the case of at-large elections, with fewer than 1,000 registered voters.

The change in the Vallecitos election format thus requires a recall petition to have the signatures of 30 percent of the number of registered voters in the trustee area of the incumbent being targeted for recall.

Based on the 2010 census, the Vallecitos School District has a total population of 1,962 residents with 1,744 of those being at least 18 years old. The district consists of 1,249 Caucasians including 1,094 who are at least 18, 794 Hispanics including 547 at least 18 years old, 64 Asians including Polynesians with 60 of those being 18 or older, 18 blacks with 15 of those being 18 or older, nine American Indians including seven of voting age, and 28 residents of more than one race including 21 who are at least 18.

The trustee areas utilize total population rather than the number of registered voters. The maximum allowable variance between the highest-populated and lowest-populated trustee area is 10 percent, and the variance for the adopted Vallecitos map is 9.02 percent.

Trustee Area 1 is in the north central part of the district and is on both sides of Interstate 15. The population consists of 263 Caucasians, 148 Hispanics, 15 Asians and Polynesians, five American Indians, and five people of more than one race.

Trustee Area 2 is in the central part of the district and includes Vallecitos Elementary School. It is east of Interstate 15 and mostly west of Camino Rainbow. The area is home to 212 whites, 210 Hispanics, seven Asians, two American Indians, two blacks, and four residents of multiple races.

Trustee Area 3 is east of Camino Rainbow and Rice Canyon Road. It is inhabited by 250 whites, 168 Hispanics, 17 Asians including Polynesians, and 11 people of more than one race.

Trustee Area 4 is the eastern area of the district. It has 292 whites, 116 Hispanics, 16 blacks, seven Asians or Polynesians, one American Indian, and four residents of multiple races.

Trustee Area 5 is the western part of the district. It is populated by 232 whites, 152 Hispanics, 18 Asians and Polynesians, one American Indian, and four people of multiple races.

The California Education Code and the California Elections Code both stipulate that the elections of school district board members are to occur in odd-numbered years, but in 1984 state legislation was passed allowing school districts to adopt a resolution to elect their board members on the same day as the statewide November elections which occur in even-numbered years.

Since then the Vallecitos School District has had five contested board elections, including two on the same ballot.

Two of those elections were held on Nov. 4, 1986, when the school board was expanded from three to five members. Two of the initial three seats were subject to election in 1986 and three candidates ran. Edith Taylor received 353 votes and Michele Liermann obtained 350 votes to win the two seats while 198 votes were cast for Patricia Arthur.

Three candidates ran for the additional two board seats. Bruce Fried led the balloting with 387 votes and Connie Edgerton was also elected with 346 votes. Lisa Grace received 156 votes.

In the event of a board vacancy the remaining board members fill the vacancy and, if this occurs during the first two years of a four-year term, an election to fill the remaining two years of that term is held at the next statewide election.

An election for a two-year short term on the Rainbow board was held Nov. 5, 1996; Craig Ohlson won with 329 votes while Wendi Wallace obtained 292 votes.

The next contested Vallecitos School District board election was also to fill a short term and occurred on Nov. 7, 2006. Kerri Smith was the winning candidate with 308 votes and John Sliffe received 173 votes.

Two seats were subject to election on the Nov. 8, 2016, ballot and three candidates sought those positions. Michelle LaLonde was seated with 369 votes, Rae Lynn Heilbronn had 325 votes and was also elected, and Paul Georgantas obtained 273 votes. Georgantas was subsequently appointed to fill a vacancy.

In addition to ensuring compliance with the state prohibition of at-large elections which might impair the electoral ability of a protected class, elections by trustee area protect against special interests.

While an ethnic group can be considered a special interest, by-trustee area elections are more likely to protect a district against geographical, professional, or ideological special interests. In the case of a geographical special interest it would no longer be possible for three candidates from that neighborhood to run for the board, sweep the election, and hold a majority. Although professional or ideological special interests could still win three individual seats and could still run as a slate, elections by trustee area increase the chance of an independent candidate being elected.

In at-large elections in which voters select no more than two or no more than three candidates, an independent running against a slate is at a considerable disadvantage since a voter can select that independent plus one (in the case of two seats) or two (in the case of three seats) slate members or the voter could cast a ballot for the slate members.

A single candidate against two or three incumbents also has that disadvantage with at-large elections, so elections by trustee area increase the chance of one challenger unseating an incumbent.

Three of the Vallecitos School District four-year terms will expire at the end of 2022 while the other two seats have terms which will expire at the end of 2020. The incumbents will be allowed to retain their seats until their terms expire, although if any candidate dies, resigns, or is recalled prior to the filing deadline for the November 2020 election the remainder of that term will be filled through a by-trustee area election.

Local agencies are allowed to revise their trustee area boundaries, contingent upon the areas having approximately equal population and the boundaries not being drawn to disenfranchise any specific group, as the district feels is warranted.

The boundaries may be revised in 2021 if the 2020 census reveals significant population changes. A district normally utilizes the census every 10 years to revise its boundaries although a school district could change its boundaries earlier if growth in an area creates an unequal population.