Pulver says maps only “conservation starters”
By Jeannette Andruss
The Los Alamitos Unified School District has released five draft maps for public review as it moves from an at-large voting system to one with five trustee voting areas. Starting in 2020, voters in the district will select one candidate from their area to represent them on the Board of Education rather than casting ballots for all five Board members.
LAUSD Superintendent Dr. Andrew Pulver characterized the draft maps as “conversation starters” meant to prompt discussion and provide input that will be used to create a different, final map that will be approved by the Board of Education sometime in January.
The draft maps divide the school district into different configurations of five trustee voting areas with a focus of keeping “communities of interest” together. How to fairly incorporate the Seal Beach retirement community of Leisure World into the areas has been a topic of debate.
“We’ve showed a variety of maps that offer a variety of options,” said Justin Levitt, demographer from National Demographics Corporation, the firm LAUSD hired to draw the new voting trustee area maps.
The maps, and process for approval, can be reviewed by visiting losal.org/voting.
LAUSD has nine schools spread across Seal Beach, Rossmoor and Los Alamitos in an area with about 48,000 people. Each voting area must have a similar population size of about 9,600 people. That number represents total population which means children are included in that count.
LAUSD officials have been holding community meetings to get residents’ feedback on the draft maps. The next meeting is scheduled for December 10 at 6:30 p.m. during the regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting in the District Office Board Room at 10293 Bloomfield Street.
On Nov. 12, there was discussion on the maps during the regular Board of Education meeting but it happened after the deadline to print The Event-News Enterprise. Last week, meetings took place in Rossmoor, Los Alamitos, at J.H. McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach and in Leisure World.
Leisure World, the private retirement community that doesn’t allow school-age children to reside there, raises some distinctive issues for demographers in this transition for LAUSD.
Leisure World residents must be at least 55 years old, so they are all voting-age and a majority are registered voters. While they do cast ballots for the Board of Education, Leisure World was exempted from voting on or re-paying the past two LAUSD bond measures. Bond measures add a fee to property tax bills to finance projects for the district. Measure G, LAUSD’s $97 million bond measure, passed in November 2018.
Because of Leisure World’s unique concentration of voting-age residents, there is an awareness by demographers, and concern for some residents, that how the community fits into the new voting trustee areas could impact other neighborhoods.
During a meeting in Clubhouse 3 at Leisure World on November 5, Board of Education member Marlys Davidson explained a possible scenario where 4,800 people from Leisure World were grouped with 4,800 people from other communities to form one voting trustee area.
The concern is that the Leisure World portion could “dominate” or outvote the other neighborhoods because the other communities have more children who cannot vote.
At that same meeting, many attendees voiced support for having Leisure World kept in one voting trustee area meaning they would have one representative on the Board.
“I think we’re better as a unified voice,” said Leisure World resident Kathy Moran and added that splitting up Leisure World would be “too disjointed for us.”
But, as Levitt noted, the population of Leisure World, about 7,500 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, isn’t enough to constitute its own LAUSD voting trustee area. (The voting area population counts will be updated after the 2020 U.S. Census.)
“What neighborhood should Leisure World be connected to?” Levitt asked attendees at the Nov. 5 meeting.
Only one of the draft maps has Leisure World kept together in one voting area but it is grouped with parts of College Park West and Rossmoor, the community with the most number of school-age children, according to Levitt.
The other draft maps have Leisure World split up into two, three or four different voting areas. Leisure World is covered by two Seal Beach City Council districts.
“We really care about all the children in Orange County,” one Leisure World resident at the meeting said. She noted that Leisure World residents have grandchildren in the district. No representative on the LAUSD Board of Education has a child currently enrolled at an LAUSD school.
After the meeting, Moran said she was grateful for the opportunity to speak out. “My wish may not be fulfilled but my voice will be heard,” she said.
Residents can also submit input by emailing trusteeareaelection@losal.org.