District Elections for School District

Now that the City of Santa Barbara has voted to place district elections and even-year elections in the City Charter, it’s time for district elections for local schools. The Santa Barbara Unified School District would represent the community better with district elections. In the same way that different neighborhoods should be represented on the City Council, different neighborhoods should be represented on the school board.

As well as going to district elections, the Santa Barbara district should increase the size of the Board of Education to seven members. Only if there are seven members will voting districts provide adequate representation. With only five members, districts would be too large to represent different areas of the community.

District elections and a seven-member School Board would serve the community well. The new Board of Education should set as one of its goals to improve representation on the school board.