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By Miriam Raftery
June 4, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Voters in the Grossmont Union-High School District this fall will be casting ballots for candidates in five separate trustee districts, under a redistricting plan approved in May by the California Board of Education. Candidates who wish to file to run in one of the new districts can do so starting July 18 with a deadline of August 12 for candidacy filings.
No signatures are required to run in these districts. There is no filing fee, however there is a fee for having a statement in the ballot. The amount has not yet been determined, but a candidacy guide will be available soon, Registrar of Voters Michael Vu told East County Magazine today.
District 1 in Lemon Grove/Spring Valley will be an open seat in with no incumbent, since none of the current GUHSD board members live within its boundaries. The district has a majority of minority residents, an effort to comply with Voting Rights Act concerns.
Trustee Jim Stieringer, who is up for reelection this fall, lives in District 2, the La Mesa/Rancho San Diego area.
Districts 3, 4 and 5 have trustees who are not up for reelection until 2018 (Gary Woods in El Cajon, Robert Shields in Lakeside/Santee and Jim Kelly with a large district of unincorporated areas. So voters there will not have opportunities to choose new representatives until two years from now.
Trustee Priscilla Schreiber will be forced off the board since her term of office ends after the November election, but she resides in the same Lakeside-area district as Shield, who isn’t up for reelection until 2018.
The Board of Education voted to waive a requirement for a public vote after hearing testimony on both sides, allowing the redistricting to move forward. Many supported the plan to create more lcoal representation, but there was also substantial opposition, primarily from the Alpine community. Schreiber has been a strong supporter of a high school for Alpine, while Kelly, who will now represent Alpine, has strongly opposed building the high school.
Contention over the Alpine high school promised in bond measures but never built has resulted in a lawsuit against the district and a unification by Alpine parents seeking to split from the Grossmont district. The State Board of Education is expected to vote later this year on whether to approve the unification. If approved, it could force a second redistricting of Grossmont in the future.
The district claimed that it faced potential litigation for potential state or federal Voting Rights Act violations unless the waiver was approved.
You can view a video of the hearing here (starting at the 3 hour, 11 minute mark):
http://cde-ca.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=426#.V05d7WLuzM8.email.
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