Parents Support Seven Trustee Areas

The San Juan Parents Association strongly supports San Juan Unified School District’s transition from at-large elections to by-trustee elections and strongly supports seven trustee areas.

San Juan Parents came to this determination following comprehensive review of all ten map concepts, attending public forums, and speaking with parents of district students.

Representation is at the heart of San Juan Parents' decision. Currently, each school board trustee has overlapping responsibilities for 321,259 people. In practice, this creates diminished responsibility for individual neighborhoods and schools. In simpler terms - when everyone is in charge, no one is in charge.

Conversely, seven trustee areas would empower each trustee to represent an average of 45,984 people and be accountable to local parents and local neighborhoods. While five trustee areas may appear to create the same dynamic, it would present parents with 40% less representation on the school board. For that reason, San Juan Parents strongly supports seven trustee areas.

San Juan Parents has not taken a position on which seven trustee areas concept map is best. Each concept has pros and cons and parents did not universally align behind a single map.