CUSD Governing Board to hold public hearing on trustee area maps, reschedule board elections

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Members of the Castaic Union School District (CUSD) Governing Board will approve a resolution to reschedule board election years and will conduct a public hearing to present proposed trustee voting area maps at its Thursday meeting.

At its public hearing, the board will take testimony and comments from the community about the proposed trustee voting area plans associated with the district’s transition to a by-trustee area election system.

The by-trustee election system was used this year in the November elections for the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees and the Saugus Union School District Governing Board.

In the proposed Green, Blue and Red Drafts of trustee areas, the Castaic voting areas are separated into five trustee voting areas of A through E.

Each proposed draft addresses the voting areas’ total population, voting age population, citizen voting age population, voter registration, voter turnout as of November 2014 and November 2012, ACS population estimate, age, immigration, language spoken at home, language fluency, education, children, work population, household income and housing stats.

The board is also expected to approve a resolution to reschedule board member elections from odd years to even years, beginning with the 2018 governing board election.

With the change in election years, the CUSD board will align with California Senate Bill 415, “California Voter Participation Rights Act,” which takes effect Jan. 1, 2018.

The bill prohibits local governments from holding election dates different from state wide elections if “the voter turnout in in past local elections has resulted in a significant decrease in voter turnout.”

In CUSD, only 2,088 ballots were cast out of 11,313 registered voters in 2015, resulting in an 18 percent voter turnout and a violation of the soon-to-be instituted Voter Participation Rights Act, according to a report from the National Demographics Coporation.

To avoid litigation and increase voter participation, the board will approve a resolution to move the board election dates to the same years of statewide elections.

This change will also alter board member terms.  Terms expected to expire in November 2017 will extend to November 2018 and terms expiring in November 2019 will extend to November 2020.

For current board members, this means that the terms of Susan Christopher, Fred Malcomb, Laura Pearson and Victor Torres will extend to 2018, and the term of Stacy Dobbs will extend to 2020.

Additional Agenda Items:

  • Election of board members to the office of president, clerk, presiding officer in absence of president and clerk
  • Selection of board members to serve as representatives to the County Committee on School District Organization and  to the Special Education Liaison Committee (SELPA)
  • Presentation from Castaic Elementary School Principal Stephanie Beach on her recent trip to China
  • Establish date, time and place for the proposed 2017 Board of Trustees meetings
  • Announce the receipt of the 2016-2017 Initial Proposal For Bargaining from the California Teachers Association (CTA) and “sunshine” the proposal at the public meeting
  • First reading to adopt revised board policies and administrative regulations: Uniform Complaint Procedures; Temporary Modified/Light-Duty Assignment; Temporary/Substitute Personnel (Certificated); Staff Development (Certificated); Personal Illness/Injury Leave (Classified); Bullying; and Asthma Management

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On Twitter as @_ChristinaCox_

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