Dear Editor,
At the end of this month and in early February, the LA County Committee on School District Organization (LACOE) will hold public hearings and accept testimony from interested parties on a very important issue that many in our community may not be aware of: how the voters elect our Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board Members.
In January 2022, a petition was filed against SMMUSD seeking to force the school district’s voting system to change, without consent of the voters, from an open, at-large system to separate districts using a gerrymandered district map.
While the petition has been working its way through the system, the California legislature passed a new law, the FAIR Maps Act of 2023, which went into effect on January 1, 2024. At a high level, the Act requires governing bodies which are elected by-district to conform with uniform requirements. It specifies that:
"Districts shall be geographically contiguous" (meaning a district cannot be split).
"The geographic integrity of any city, local neighborhood, or local community of interest shall be respected in a manner that minimizes its division."
"The place of residence of any incumbent or political candidate shall not be considered in the creation of a map. Districts shall not be drawn for purposes of favoring or discriminating against an incumbent, political candidate, or political party."
"Election district boundaries should be easily identifiable and understandable by residents."
The proposed district map for SMMUSD offers a textbook case of gerrymandering, a manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create an undue advantage (or disadvantage) to a particular group. The map submitted in the petition regarding SMMUSD violates the FAIR Maps Act of 2023 in the following ways:
The map splits Malibu, an independent and incorporated city, into two parts, violating its integrity. It arbitrarily combines western Malibu with the southern portion of Sunset Park (forming proposed district #1) and eastern Malibu with the center portion of North of Montana (forming proposed district #3). Malibu is not contiguous with the North of Montana neighborhood and certainly not with the Sunset Park neighborhood.
The Ocean Park neighborhood and the narrow strip of Sunset Park between Ocean Park and Pearl are combined into proposed district #4. This district is neither easily identifiable nor understandable, and violates Sunset Park’s neighborhood integrity.
The proposed district that contains the Pico neighborhood, which has been home to many residents (and voters) who have historically been part of marginalized communities oddly includes the portion of Sunset Park between Pico and Pearl, which primarily consists of single-family homes (forming proposed district #7) combining two different communities of interest
The lines appear to be drawn so as to place certain current SMMUSD Board members into the same district intentionally to force at least one of them out in each of those proposed districts. The FAIR Maps Act of 2023 explicitly prohibits the consideration of an incumbent’s place of residence in drawing maps and prohibits drawing district lines for the purpose of favoring or discriminating against an incumbent (or a political candidate or political party).
We urge LACOE to reject the proposed map, which is in violation of the FAIR Maps Act of 2023, and to further reject the petition to change SMMUSD to by-district elections as it would negatively impact the ability of voters to elect representatives of their choice to serve our community. The proposed map clearly violates the law and the petition it accompanies is based on falsehoods and misrepresentations about SMMUSD elections. At-large elections have served our community well; School Board members from diverse backgrounds who are concerned about all students have been elected for many years. We believe that having seven votes for School Board provides for better representation as being able to vote for only one candidate who lives in one’s district would do a great disservice to our communities and to the students who attend our schools.
The proposed map and the petition seeking to force the SMMUSD Board to by-district elections would actually disenfranchise eligible voters by 85%. SMMUSD’s integrity requires at large elections. For all students to receive a quality education there needs to be a community of voters and stakeholders who can exercise full enfranchisement and voting rights to have the freedom to elect a school board genuinely representing the whole of the school district.
Sincerely,
Sam Cozolino, SaMoSSA Youth Leadership Collective
Brad Ewing, Co-Chair, Santa Monica Forward
Nicole Faries, Santa Monica Resident
Cris Gutierrez, Teacher-Scholar/Retired Educator
Dan Hall, Santa Monica Resident
Carl Hansen, Co-Chair, Santa Monica Forward
Jon Katz, President, Santa Monica Democratic Club
Maria Leon-Vazquez, SMMUSD Board Member
Ellis Raskin, Santa Monica Resident
Cynthia Rose, Co-Chair SaMo Safe Streets Alliance
Willa Ross, SaMoSSA Youth Leadership Collective
Julie Rusk, Santa Monica Resident
Maya Williams, SaMoSSA Youth Leadership Collective
Ted Winterer, Santa Monica Resident
Natalya Zernitskaya, Santa Monica Resident
Emery Cunningham, SaMoSSA Youth Leadership Collective
