Following the lead of cities, many Santa Barbara County school districts are deciding to change to by-trustee elections for board members.
At-large election systems have been frequently challenged under the California Voting Rights Act, and some agencies are voluntarily making the switch to avoid litigation.
The Santa Barbara Unified School District board on Monday considered a resolution to move to by-trustee elections by November 2022, and will vote on the issue at its May 8 meeting, district spokeswoman Lauren Bianchi Klemann said.
SBUSD has a five-person board of education, and each member is elected by all voters throughout the district.
In a by-trustee election system, the school district boundaries would be broken up into trustee areas, and each seat would be elected by its area voters.
If there is no candidate from a trustee area, the board of education members would appoint a resident of that area to fill the seat.
The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, the Carpinteria Unified School District and the Lompoc Unified School District boards already have passed resolutions announcing their intent to move to by-trustee elections by 2022, after the 2020 census, according to a presentation by Craig Price, legal counsel to SBUSD and CUSD.
Santa Barbara City College, Allan Hancock College and the Santa Barbara County Board of Education have converted to by-trustee elections for their boards, according to Price.
Santa Barbara Unified board members serve four-year terms, and two seats will be on November’s ballot, the ones currently held by longtime member Kate Parker and Ismael Paredes Ulloa, who was appointed to serve the last two years of Monique Limon’s term after she was elected to the State Assembly in 2016.
Board members Laura Capps, Jacqueline Reid and Wendy Sims-Moten were appointed in lieu of election in November 2016 since they ran uncontested for the three open seats. That year, 41 of 59 school board seats were uncontested countywide.
Following the board’s decision to demote San Marcos High School Principal Ed Behrens, a group of parents announced it was working on a recall effort for the four board members who voted to oust him: Parker, Paredes Ulloa, Reid and Sims-Moten.
Behrens has since been reassigned to a teaching position starting in July, “site TBD,” according to the district, which has started a recruitment process for new principals at San Marcos High School and Santa Barbara High School.
SBHS Principal John Becchio took a human resources job with the district and will leave at the end of the current school year.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.