Orange County Board of Education members seeking re-election in June will be forced to campaign in newly redrawn districts, selected by a county committee, following a court order this week.
On Wednesday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregory H. Lewis denied the board’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have stopped new election maps created with input from the board from immediately going into effect.
That means OCBE members Mari Barke, Lisa Sparks and Tim Shaw will be facing challengers in the June 7 election in redrawn districts.
Board members argue the new districts have been drawn in a way to push them out of office, but members of the committee that created the maps said the new lines were created independent of politics.
“My district was definitely gerrymandered very far south, which didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me,” said Barke, a Rossmoor resident in north Orange County.
Shaw, a La Habra resident, had similar complaints and claimed the redrawn districts were “politically motivated.”
“They put La Habra, Fullerton and Buena Park in the Fourth District, then put Brea, Placentia and Yorba Linda in the third district, drawing a wedge straight through North Orange County.”
The five-member Orange County Board of Education includes four very conservative board members who have used their platform to push their ideals, including less intrusive public health rules during the pandemic and support of public charter schools.
Virginia Wilson, a longtime member of the Los Alamitos Unified School Board and a member of the Orange County Committee on School District Organization, which is tasked with school redistricting maps, said politics was never discussed or considered during the map drawing process.
“We chose the map that tried to keep districts whole, together,” Wilson said. “We made a determination under (education) code and it was within the law.”
Wilson, who like other committee members was a target of derogatory remarks from some OCBE supporters during recent public hearings, added: “I was very shocked by the attitude and the language of the people speaking.”
The map making process has sparked a legal battle.
On Jan. 20, the OCBE filed a court petition against the Orange County Committee on School District Organization. On Jan. 28, that committee, made up of 11 current and former school board members, rejected OCBE’s favored election map, and voted 8-2 in favor of another redistricting map. A few days later, the Orange County Board of Supervisors stepped into the dispute and passed a resolution giving the OCBE “exclusive authority” to adjust its own voter redistricting.
In his order this week, Judge Lewis denied OCBE’s request, the second time a Superior Court judge this year ruled against a temporary restraining order in the case.
Lewis wrote that county trustees “contended that the OC Board of Supervisors has authority to determine the redistricting powers of the Board of Education” and that county supervisors could then delegate that authority to the Board of Education members, according to a court document. But “the state’s education code designates the committee as the group charged with revising election maps following the decennial U.S. Census count.”
Committee member Francine Scinto, one of two members who voted for what she called “a far superior” version of the OCBE’s map, said she “did not look at it from a political standpoint” but questioned whether politics came into play with some on the committee.
“We didn’t talk about it that way,” said Scinto, who served on the Tustin Unified School Board for 24 years. “But that doesn’t mean some people don’t have connections behind the scenes. I was surprised at how lopsided the vote was.”
Scinto also did not think that having dueling demographers and attorneys — hired by the Board of Education and the committee — made for good governance.
“The whole situation is very unfortunate.”
And it’s not over. While Lewis denied the OCBE’s request for a temporary restraining order, the case will continue and could impact future elections, Barke and Shaw said Friday.
“We’re definitely going to pursue this. It’s not over,” Barke said.
Beckie Gomez, a member of OCBE who tends to vote against the conservative majority and who opposed taking the county committee to court, noted that this is one of several lawsuits or legal matters involving the board. Those legal fights, she said, have been distracting.
“It’s been difficult,” Gomez said. “So many different lawsuits going on. The board’s focus should be on education.”
Meanwhile, board members up for re-election said they’re beginning their campaigns.
“Personally, I’m going to put a lot more miles on my tennis shoes,” Barke said.
Sparks, who said she may not be affected as much by the redistricting as her colleagues, has fundraisers lined up and said she plans to “hit the ground running.”
The deadline for candidates to file their candidacy paperwork with the Orange County Registrar of Voters for the June 7 election is Friday, March 11.
Staff writer Sean Emery contributed to this report.
