SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - As part of the San Juan Unified School District’s (SJUSD) transition from at-large elections to trustee-area elections, eight drafts maps were released for public review on July 6. Meetings were held on July 13, 14, and 15—at the district office and various schools throughout the district, as well as two online meetings—to gather public input about the potential trustee-area boundaries. 

The transition comes in response to an allegation that the current at-large system violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), which strives to ensure protected classes of voters have the ability to influence the outcome of elections. In the existing at-large system, voters in the district vote on all candidates running for open seats on the SJUSD Board of Education, and candidates can live anywhere in the district. After a final map is selected in the transition process, Board members will be elected only by voters within the trustee-areas where they reside. This should ensure that minority groups and economically disadvantaged areas of the district receive local representation.  

Eight draft maps were created, four with five trustee areas and four with seven trustee areas. The areas must be compact and contiguous, so nearby areas are grouped together in a variety of configurations, giving the community many options to review. Wherever possible, boundaries were drawn along major roadways within the district. Although this often means that people across the street from each other would be assigned to different voting areas, using major thoroughfares ensures that those divisions don’t happen between people who consider themselves neighbors. The boundaries must be drawn somewhere, and major roadways are preferable to dividing local neighborhoods.

Due to the district’s total population and dispersed demographics, it wasn’t possible to create any minority majority trustee areas—neither with one minority group as the majority, nor a plurality where the total population of minority groups represent a voting majority. However, some of the map options do have higher concentrations of minority voters compared to the district average based on population, so that is a factor the Board can consider when choosing the final map.

Throughout the course of nine public meetings, some common themes emerged in the feedback from community members. Many people support expanding the Board from five to seven seats, asserting that Board members who represent smaller areas will be better able to understand the local issues, thus leading to better representation and improved student outcomes—particularly in historically underrepresented areas like Arden Arcade and Citrus Heights.

Still, there were many others who would prefer to see the Board remain at five seats, arguing that five trustee areas would do a better job of keeping the similar areas together. SJUSD serves Arden-Arcade, Carmichael, Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks, Gold River, Orangevale, and part of Sacramento. The trustee areas must be roughly equal in population, but some of these locations are more densely populated than others. So, some residents believe splitting into seven areas will force areas without common interests into the same voting division. Some people also raised the concern that expanding to seven members would mean two additional members who would earn compensation for their work on the Board. They pointed out that those costs could come at the expense of the school sites.

Of those who preferred the seven-area maps, some wanted to see changes so that Arden Arcade and North Highlands are grouped together. Proponents of this change suggested that those areas share common interests and similar economic status. Combining them into the same trustee area would strengthen their voices and allow them to elect a Board member who will advocate for their needs.

Multiple commenters wanted to see Citrus Heights contained in one area to ensure the city has a strong voice on the Board. However, Citrus Heights makes up approximately 25% of the total district population, and due to the trustee-area population requirements, the city will likely have to be represented by at least two Board members. Others saw this as a positive development since Citrus Heights hasn’t had local representation on the Board in almost 20 years, so having more than one member elected from within Citrus Heights would greatly improve their representation.

Some feedback asserted it would be best for each area to have a combination of low- and high-performing schools. But others fear that such boundaries would dilute the votes in poorer areas, since more affluent neighborhoods tend to have higher voter turnout. They would prefer neighborhoods be grouped so that struggling areas could share common representation.  

The Board initially directed the demographers to ensure each area included at least one high school in all the map scenarios. But some residents thought that requirement should be abandoned because SJUSD is an open enrollment district and students don’t necessarily attend school in the neighborhoods where they live.

The Board will review all the feedback received and may instruct the demographers to make changes to the draft maps. Revised maps will be posted to the district website (https://www.sanjuan.edu/) no later than July 20 so the public can review them and prepare comments ahead of the July 27 meeting, when the Board will vote for a final map.