Schools

PUSD Electorial Redistricting Plan Moves to Next Phase

The Pasadena Unified School Board voted Tuesday night to hire consultants to draw up a potential new electoral map with electoral subdistricts that would result in board members representing specific geographic areas.

The Pasadena Unified School Board voted Tuesday night to move to the next phase of its redistricting plan: drawing up a map of geographic sub-districts that would make board members accountable to specific geographic areas of Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre.

The redistricting process has been underway since January, when the school board to study the issue.

So far, that task force has met and agreed on some basic parameters for what the redistricting process will mean for the school district.  At Tuesday's meeting, the board voted to accept those changes and authorized a $500,000 contract for redistricting consultants to draw up a map creating potential sub-districts.

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Currently, board members are elected at-large, meaning every voter who resides in the district votes for each board member.  The redistricting plan would mean each voter would reside in a district and have one board member that is accountable to residents of that district.

The plan would have to be put before PUSD voters in a special election slated for June 5, 2012,  and its passage by voters is in no way guaranteed. A similar measure seeking to establish sub-districts failed in 2000 when Measure BB was rejected by a slim margin.

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Some board members have said that they are studying the plan not because they believe would be an improvement for voters, but rather out of concern that the district could be sued for a federal voting rights violation for not considering a sub-district electoral plan.

The plan will not mean there would be a distinct seat for Altadena: city residents could be split into several different districts, a result that .

Tuesday's vote solidified some changes to the district's charter that would be undertaken if voters were to ultimately approve redistricting.  Among those changes would be:

  • Board candidates would only need to get 25 signatures to qualify for the ballot rather than the current requirement of 100.
  • Board candidates would be required to live in the sub-district they represent.
  • Seats 1,3,5, and 7 would be voted upon in 2013, and seats 2,4,and 6 would be voted upon in 2015, which would result in two years where they board was partially elected by sub-district voters and partially elected by an at-large vote.
  • A nine-member redistricting task force would be appointed after each census, with two members from Altadena who would be appointed by the County Board of Supervisor representing the city.  Currently, the district does not need to do redistricting as there are no geographical sub-districts.
  • The PUSD board would be responsible for ultimately deciding on the redistricting plan approved by the task force after each census, by a two-thirds vote.

The district is aiming to release the maps for the current redistricting proposal in March, about three months before the public would vote on the plan.

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