|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Livermore school district will transition from at-large school board ballots to “by-trustee area” elections in 2026, following unanimous approval by the Board of Education at its meeting last week.
This means that instead of the whole community voting for candidates together, areas will separately vote for one representative each.
The transition — which doesn’t affect the election this year — is meant to improve representation, minimize the potential for “racially polarized voting” and bring the district into better alignment with the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA), according to the resolution adopted at the Oct. 1 board meeting.
As part of the transition, Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District will take in community feedback for trustee area maps at five local public hearings.
“We (the Board) are committed to maintaining an attitude of fairness and representation across our entire district,” Board President Emily Prusso said in a press release after the meeting. “It is important to us that this change does not divide us, but rather strengthens our differences.”
The CVRA says it prohibits at-large elections “in a political subdivision if it would impair the ability of a protected class… to elect candidates of its choice or otherwise influence the outcome of an election”.
While LVJUSD doesn’t not believe it is in violation of the CVRA, as stated in the resolution, LVJUSD coordinator of community engagement Michelle Dawson said the district is proactively changing its election system before any legal challenges arise like those that happened in Hayward and Castro Valley.
“We believe it was only a matter of time before we experienced the same challenges”, Dawson told Livermore Vine.
LVJUSD is the last of the four K-12 districts to convert away from at-large board elections.
And, according to Dawson, “the only election system that provides an accepted ‘safe harbor’ from a potential CVRA claim is a ‘by-trustee area’ election system”.
Utilizing by-trustee area elections “minimizes the potential for impermissible racially polarized voting and further limits the possibility for litigation under the CVRA”, according to the resolution.
Racially polarized voting is defined as voting in which there is a difference between the electoral choices of voters in a protected class and that of voters in the rest of the electorate, according to the California Election Code 14026.
Another benefit of a by-trustee area election is enhanced representation, “ensuring that the diverse voices of the community are reflected on the school board”, according to the statement by LVJUSD.
Other benefits include increased accountability of officials, who will need to answer to their specific districts, and greater community engagement, according to the statement.
As its next steps, the school district will seek input on the trustee areas at five local public hearings at the LVJUSD Boardroom at 685 E. Jack London Blvd. in Livermore.
“We are committed to providing our community with comprehensive information about the process and engaging their input and feedback along the way,” Superintendent Torie Gibson said in a statement.
Two pre-map public hearings are scheduled for this month. The first is set on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. and the second is set on Oct. 17 at 9:30 a.m.
After the initial input, an LVJUSD-selected demographer will create trustee area draft maps using census data from 2020, the most recent data that’s available.
The areas must contain about the same number of people. But another consideration for the map design is “preservation or increasing of voting power for protected classes”, according to Dawson.
Then the district will hold two more community hearings on proposed trustee area maps and the proposed sequence of elections; one will be on Nov. 7 at 9:30 a.m. and the other on Nov. 18 at 5:30 p.m.
A final hearing and adoption of the trustee areas is scheduled to take place on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.
Lastly, the adopted map will be presented to the County Committee on School District Organization for final approval within 60 days of the map adoption.
For more information on the transition from at-large elections to by-trustee area elections, visit the LVJUSD website at livermoreschools.org. The superintendent can also be reached at communityengagement@lvjusd.org.
New retail, dining options coming to Stoneridge Shopping Center later this yearApril 19, 2026 9:24 pm
