The Elk Grove Unified School District plans to have a new election system in place for its trustee races by November 2022. However, the school board cannot change their trustee area boundaries until they receive long-delayed data from the 2020 Census count.

During the board’s July 20 meeting, the district staff said they expect the 2020 Census information to be available by October. The release of such vital data was postponed, due to the U.S. Census Bureau’s challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID has affected everything we’ve done as an organization,” the district’s deputy superintendent of business services and facilities, Rob Pierce, told the school board.   

At their meeting, trustees and district staff members wore masks in the board chambers at the Trigg Education Center.

While they await the 2020 Census data, Pierce’s staff advised the school board to approve the district’s current trustee area map at their Aug. 10 meeting. This map is based on data from the 2010 Census count.

Trustees would later review the most recent population data from 2020 Census data this fall, and potentially change their trustee area boundaries before their March 2022 deadline. The district is required by state law to adopt their new trustee area map by then.

In 2019, the school board voted to transition to the “by-trustee area” election system, and change the way that voters elect trustees. Starting in 2022, voters will only choose among candidates running in their local trustee area instead of candidates running at large in the district. Trustees in the 62-year-old district historically represented trustee areas but they were still elected by voters who lived across the 320-square-mile district.  

The Elk Grove City Council and the Cosumnes Community Services District board also adopted similar “by-district” election systems in 2019. They made this move after Kevin Shenkman, a Malibu-based attorney, threatened legal action against the city of Elk Grove for allegedly violating the California Voting Rights Act. He claimed that the City Council’s previous “from-district” election system disenfranchised Latino voters since Elk Grove has a large Latino population but it lacked Latino City Council members.

At the Elk Grove school board’s July 20 meeting, legal consultant Mike Lozano of Lozano-Smith, assured the trustees that they satisfied the California Voting Rights Act’s requirements by adopting the new by-trustee area election system.

“You’re embracing a decision that moves away from racially polarized voting, (and) tries to increase representation,” he said.

 Throughout this summer, the school board held hearings on changes to their trustee area map as part of their preparation for the new election system. The future map will have seven trustee areas that have roughly 44,800 voting-age residents each.

On July 20, the district staff determined that it would be best for the school board if they kept the current map until the 2020 Census data is released.

“Our concern is that if you make your modifications to your trustee area maps now, they’re done out of context with regard to the 2020 Census date,” Pierce said. “And then you’re going to make changes again in October.”

Shalice Tilton, a consultant from the National Demographics Corporation, estimated that the school district’s population of voting-age residents could increase by 41,000 in the 2020 Census.  She also expects Trustee Areas 6 and 7 would have the highest population growths. Trustee Area 6, which is represented by Trustee Nancy Chaires Espinoza, includes Elk Grove’s growing Laguna Ridge neighborhood that borders the Elk Grove Auto Mall and the future site of the Sky River Casino.

Trustee Carmine Forcina represents Trustee Area 7, which covers Rancho Cordova’s expanding Anatolia neighborhood.

Due to the estimated population growths in Trustee Areas 6 and 7, the school board will likely change their area boundaries in order to balance their numbers of voting-age residents.

District Superintendent Christopher Hoffman told the school board that he imagines there will be more community engagement when the board changes its trustee area map.

“No one is really opposed to doing the (by-trustee area) elections, but when we actually move some lines and people are represented by different (trustees) – that will give people opportunities to share perspectives,” he said.

The Elk Grove school board’s next hearing on their trustee area map will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 10 at the Trigg Education Center. Members of the public can view the meeting and submit comments to the board via the Zoom application. For meeting access, visit the Elk Grove school district’s website, www.EGUSD.net.