Written by William Hale
More than a month has passed since the San Dieguito School Board was scheduled to finalize their redistricting maps. State law declares that if a local school board is unable to agree on a redistricting map by the stated deadline, then the San Diego County Board of Education can take over responsibility.
The San Dieguito School Board originally approved a new redistricting map, but two community members are suing the school board with accusations of political gerrymandering and unfairly dividing areas with significant minority representation. Carol Chang from San Diego, and Lisa Montes from Solana Beach are being represented by attorney Corey Briggs in their lawsuit.
Crucial to this lawsuit is the assertion that the Brown Act — the state’s public transparency law — has been violated by the San Dieguito Board due to their failure to update their agendas to the district’s homepage. However, after Briggs suggested the board’s violation of the Brown Act, all of the progress that the board made up until that point had been voided, meaning that the formerly approved map was dismissed.
One conservative member of the school board, Maureen Muir, disagreed with the accusations of Brown Act violation. Muir also said in an email that, “It appears as if the teachers union-backed county school board will override the will of a locally-elected school board to meet their partisan objectives.”
After two years of chaos revolving around COVID policy, San Dieguito’s local school board appears to remain fractured along partisan lines. The San Diego County Board of Education must now decide on a final redistricting map by April 30th. In the meantime, the county board will hold three public hearings on April 6th, 13th, and 20th.
Photo Cred: Coast News
