We love to share knowledge with our clients and connections, so today we are sharing a bit about the California Voter Rights Act (CVRA). This Act is intended to help make elections more equitable and prevent racially polarized voting. What does this mean for schools?

The CVRA encourages schools to establish “trustee areas,” rather than conducting at-large elections, for school board elections. Trustee areas divide a school district up into smaller geographies and school board members are elected to represent those areas. Only residents of the trustee area can vote for the board members representing their area. This method potentially prevents racially polarized voting in the district.

Your District may want to consider creating trustee areas for its elections to avoid legal challenges, as these cases can be expensive and disruptive. Thankfully, demographic analysis can be used to guide the creation of trustee areas.

Creating trustee areas can get rather technical, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask us. We are experienced in the process and are here to help.