Voting for Clovis school trustees is set to change next year, pending county approval
Starting this upcoming election season, Clovis school board representatives might be elected by the voters in the areas they seek to represent rather than the entire district.
The Clovis Unified School District board voted unanimously to establish a district-based elections system with a map that reflects the existing seven area boundaries, proposed by the district. However, the entire process is pending an approval by the Fresno County Committee on School District Organization (FCCSDO).
This means the district is set to embrace a district-based elections process rather than everyone voting for all candidates across the district.
Neither public comment nor board discussion – just a few remarks by two trustees – took place during the board’s Oct. 18 meeting, before the approval to send Clovis Unified’s district-based elections system proposal to the FCCSDO.
Now that the district has decided how to proceed, the FCCSDO will host a final public hearing where community members can chime in one last time before the county approves or disapproves Clovis Unified’s decision.
The FCCSDO will host this public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 1, starting at 3:30 p.m., in Clovis Unified’s Professional Development Building, 1680 E David Cook Way.
The Fresno County Superintendent of School’s Office told The Bee the hearing is taking place in Clovis school district facilities, and not in downtown Fresno because the law requires for FCCSDO hearings to meet physically within the boundaries of the district they are working with.
For public comment, community members are encouraged to sign up like it’s done for meetings such as Clovis Unified’s, and note cards with turns will be passed out.
What are district-based elections and what do they change?
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education fund states at-large elections are “often discriminatory” because, when combined with racial polarization, voters of color can be prevented from electing their representative of choice. This happens, the fund explains, when their vote is “drowned out” by a usually white majority of voters in a district.
Clovis Unified serves close to 43,000 students; 48% live in Clovis and 44% in Fresno, according to the district. Of the students, 40% identified as Hispanic or Latino, 34% white and 16% Asian.
When The Bee began reporting on Clovis Unified’s process to adopt a district-based elections system in August, district spokesperson Kelly Avants said the district doesn’t ask people to declare their race when running for school board. She couldn’t answer specific questions about the race of current or previous board members.
It remains unclear if Clovis Unified has elected a Latino board member before.
However, Area 6 board trustee Tiffany Stoker Madsen said Area 7 and hers are populations where minority groups are the majority in the district’s proposed map.
“This goes to the intent of the CVRA (California Voting Rights Act), Stoker Madsen said, “to make sure that marginalized communities have more of a voice.”
If the FCCSDO approves Clovis Unified, district spokesperson Kelly Avants said voters can expect will only see the names of candidates within their area instead of all district candidates in the 2024 election ballot.
For more information about this entire process, community members can find details in Clovis Unified’s website, https://bit.ly/45TLbUs.
This story was originally published October 30, 2023 at 9:27 PM.