Vallecitos School District files for waiver in filling vacancy

The Vallecitos School District Board approved the application of a waiver of the 60-day deadline to fill a vacant seat.

The board’s 4-0 vote, Tuesday, Feb. 9, authorized the submission of a waiver request to the California Board of Education. The waiver, which is expected to be granted, will allow the school district to fill the vacant seat by appointment rather than by an election.

“We’ll keep looking,” Michael Darnley, board president of Vallecitos School District, said.

In 2019, the district transitioned from at-large elections to elections by trustee area. No candidate filed for the Area 5 seat before the deadline for the November 2020 election. The school district sought applicants for the Area 5 seat, and Maria Ortiz applied for the vacancy. She was chosen to fill the seat during the Oct. 13 school board meeting, but she has since moved out of Rainbow and submitted her resignation Dec. 3.

The Seat 5 trustee area is the western part of the district, and an applicant must be a registered voter in that trustee area. Because the term of the seat is from December 2020 to December 2024, the seat will be subject to election for a two-year term in November 2022 although the appointed incumbent may file for that two-year term if they desire.

A 4-0 board vote Jan. 12 approved the process for the appointment. Applications were due Jan. 27.

“We advertised,” Linda Miller, business manager of Vallecitos School District, said. “We had no applicants.”

The Jan. 12 action also called for a special meeting Feb. 1 to discuss candidates and potentially appoint a new board member, but that meeting was canceled due to the lack of any applications.

Section 5091 of the California Education Code stipulates that if the vacancy is not filled within 60 days the county Office of Education superintendent shall call an election to be held within 130 days after the election is ordered. If the vacancy is filled by an appointment of the school board within 60 days an election would also occur if a petition signed by at least 5% of the number of registered voters in the district is submitted to the county Office of Education within 30 days of the appointment.

The waiver is intended for situations such as a lack of applicants rather than for a deadlock in which no applicant receives the necessary board majority to be appointed. Calling an election when no residents previously applied could also create the possibility of no candidates filing for that election.

The application form for the appointment remains on the district’s website, http://vallecitossd.net and interested citizens may also pick up an application form at the school district office or request that a form be sent by U.S. Postal Service mail. The applicant has the option of submitting the application by mail, by fax, or by hand delivery to the school district.

The Feb. 9 meeting also included a presentation by Jonathan Salt, a senior associate of the Carlsbad law firm Fagen, Friedman & Fulfrost LLP, on redistricting after the 2020 census information is obtained and on the possibility of reducing the board from five to three members.

The maximum allowable variance from the highest-populated to the lowest-populated trustee area is 10%. The five trustee areas of the Vallecitos School District currently range in population from 407 to 437 residents. The numbers are based on population and do not take into account the number of students, United States citizens or registered voters in each trustee area. If the 2020 census figures show that the variance is no longer within 10%, redistricting must be approved by the school board no later than March 1, 2022.

A county Office of Education public hearing and state Board of Education approval would be required to reduce the number of trustees from five to three. Salt said that five districts have reduced their board from five to three seats in the past two years. The process also includes a public election, although the school district may seek a waiver of that.

The Vallecitos School District board had three members before expanding to five trustees in 1986. Currently the Spencer Valley Elementary School District in Santa Ysabel is the only school district in San Diego County with a three-member board.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].