Glendale school board closes in on map for voting districts
The Glendale school board gave high marks Tuesday night for a newly drafted proposed map that could be chosen to lay out new voting districts, as Glendale Unified transitions from an at-large voting system to one based on districts.
During recent weeks, school board members have sought input from residents about how the new voting districts should be drafted.
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The district’s demographer, Glendale resident Douglas Johnson of National Demographics Corp., initially presented drafts of four maps.
A fifth draft, Map E, was subsequently created after residents submitted their input during one of four community meetings held in March.
Two more maps were drawn up after school board members discussed the initial five maps during a meeting earlier this month.
Historically, Glendale Unified has used an at-large voting system, and school board members are elected regardless of where they live in the city.
School officials were required to shift to a district-based system after they were sued by Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman last year for allegedly violating the California Voting Rights Act, including a claim that the current at-large system illegally suppresses Latino representation on the board.
The school district was sued 10 days after Glendale voters rejected the idea that Glendale Unified operate its own elections, ultimately paving the way for them to adopt a district-based voting system.
Creation of the maps was part of the lawsuit’s settlement.
On Tuesday, school officials closed in on Map G, in part because it gives La Crescenta its own voting district — district 1 — as opposed to other options that would split the community down Pennsylvania Avenue into two districts that each would have swooped down into Glendale.
During the school board meeting, Leslie Dickson, president of the Crescenta Valley Town Council, said council members plan to endorse select maps during their meeting on Thursday that would keep Crescenta Valley High School’s attendance zone mostly intact. Those include Maps A, B, C, F and G.
“The Crescenta Valley Town Council would like to endorse the idea of community, cohesiveness and togetherness when choosing a map for trustee voting areas,” Dickson said.
School board member Greg Krikorian said Map G makes the most sense because of its balance.
The second district in Map G encompasses the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood, plus areas to the north and south. It includes much of the attendance zones for Fremont, Verdugo Woodlands, R.D. White and Marshall elementary schools.
All of the maps partially divide some elementary school’s attendance zones, which concerned board member Nayiri Nahabedian.
“There really isn’t a perfect solution in a sense,” she said. “It varies.”
The third district in Map G is on the west side of Glendale and includes attendance zones for Mark Keppel, Balboa and Jefferson elementary attendance zones, and a small portion of R.D. White’s.
The fourth district is located in the southwestern tip of the city, including the heart of downtown where major residential development has been occurring. It encompasses Columbus and Edison attendance zones, and much of Cerritos’, with portions of R.D. White and Horace Mann zones as well.
Franklin Elementary is located in the fourth district, but it draws students from across Glendale.
The fifth district in Map G covers the southeast portion of the city and combines portions of Horace Mann, Muir, Marshall and Glenoaks’ attendance zones.
The school board is expected to vote on adopting Map G during its May 3 meeting.
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Kelly Corrigan, [email protected]
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
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