The San Dieguito Union High School District is being sued over redrawn voting districts that two residents say will gerrymander two of their five school board members — both backed by the teachers union — out of their seats.
In a letter sent late Monday to schools Superintendent Cheryl James-Ward, attorney Cory Briggs said he was asking a court to block the new voting map.
“SDUHSD should not transmit the new trustee-area map to the County Office of Education until this lawsuit is resolved,” Briggs said in a complaint on behalf of San Diegan Carol Chang and Solana Beach resident Lisa Montes, district residents that he said identify as Asian-American and “Hispanic/Latina.”
The 9-page suit obtained by Times of San Diego alleges that the Republican-majority school board broke state and federal laws Thursday in voting 3-2 to approve a map that puts Katrina Young (elected in 2020) and Julie Bronstein (2021) in voting districts outside their current areas. (The suit adds 59 pages of maps and other exhibits.)
“The [board] majority recently misused the statutorily required procedure for adjusting the boundaries of SDUHSD’s five trustee areas in order to give the majority’s members an electoral advantage in upcoming elections, and to put the minority’s two members at a disadvantage, by altogether rearranging the boundaries instead,” the suit says.
The three who approved so-called Scenario 8 were Maureen “Mo” Muir, Michael Allman and Melisse Mossy, a major Republican donor who is married to Jason Mossy, COO of the Mossy Auto Group.
A footnote in the lawsuit says: “By rearranging the numbering of the trustee areas, SDUHSD’s governing board will effectively allow a substantial number of residents to vote sooner and force a substantial number of residents to wait to vote more than the customary four years.”
On Tuesday morning, Mossy said she chose Scenario 8 since it had the “lowest variance [from existing map] where coastal areas could stay together.”
In email to Times of San Diego, she said a letter from the San Diego County Office of Education didn’t mention the effect on trustees as a “category,” or factor, for choosing maps.
“I would never purposely adversely affect my colleagues,” Mossy said. “As a point of proof, I was eliminated in all three maps we were considering. I think I was the most adversely affected because if I choose to run again, I have to move or wait several years. I was also told that trustees would remain in their trustee areas until their scheduled time of re-election.”
She added: “I was told that designing a map based on politics was also not allowed. We wanted to be mindful of protecting minority voting blocks and when I asked about the political affiliation breakdown of minority groups, that information was not provided. I would never racially profile anyone to assume all Asians are either one political party or another. My Asian-American friends were insulted by the suggestion of supposed political stereotypes.”
As of early Tuesday afternoon, the county Office of Education hadn’t received official notification of the school board’s action on voting districts, said the office’s spokeswoman.
“Given that, it is premature to say if we will file an amicus brief” in the Briggs suit, said Music Watson, the spokeswoman. “Our message continues to be that SDCOE stands ready and willing to support the district in establishing and approving maps that are consistent with the intent and purpose of the California Voting Rights Act.”
About 24 hours after Briggs sent his letter to the superintendent, board president Muir responded to this story and earlier questions.
“I think Mr. Briggs’s political and legal activism speaks for itself,” she said Tuesday night via email. “This is America and anybody can sue with or without merit.”
She said she didn’t know if the suit would cause the school board to reconsider its new voting map, saying: “If I did, it would be a violation of the Brown Act.”
Does the new map hurt Trustees Bronstein and Young as alleged?
“I don’t believe any elected official is entitled to their position after their elect time in office has expired,” Muir replied. “Everyone is currently entitled to complete their term in office and then must run again. No matter what map is selected. My question for you is: Does the new map hurt Trustees Muir and Mossy?”
Based on her understanding of the law and allegations, Muir said: “I believe we’ll be successful in court and it’ll be up to the plaintiffs if they want to appeal. … I’m only interested in doing what I believe is in the best interest of the district, even if it forces me to run against another incumbent.”
The Briggs action follows lawsuit threats by the San Dieguito Faculty Association and separate parent groups, according to a Coast News report.
Also warning the San Dieguito school board was the San Diego County Office of Education.
Hours before the school board adopted the new voting maps, San Diego County Superintendent of Schools Paul Gothold wrote James-Ward that its plans might invite a lawsuit based on claims of violating the California Voting Rights Act and federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Should such a map attract litigation, SDUHSD could be liable for attorney’s fees should it fail to justify its redistricting plan,” his letter said. “More likely, a proposed plan facing challenges under the CVRA would face a temporary restraining order or other injunctive relief preventing such a plan from emerging from the district within the statutorily required time frame.”
March 1 is the deadline to provide redrawn voting districts to the county Office of Education.
Gothold said that if a SDUHSD-approved plan were tied up in litigation, “the County Committee shall fulfill its statutorily imposed obligations and approve a CVRA-compliant plan of its own accord and shall seek reimbursement from SDUHSD for all costs incurred in the process.”
At Thursday’s board meeting, according to Coast News, Trustee Bronstein told board President Muir: “We’re being railroaded, Mo. We’re being railroaded.”
The Coast News also reported that changes in trustee areas means residents who previously lived in Muir’s Trustee Area 1 and were scheduled to vote in this year’s elections will now be in Trustee Area 2, which does not have a seat up for election until 2024.
“A number of parents and residents in the district also pointed to decreases in minority voting share, particularly the Asian community, in Trustee Area 4 and Trustee Area 5, which they claim go against the state voting protections,” the North County weekly reported. “For example, the voting share of the Asian community in Trustee Area 4 decreased around 8%.”
The affluent North County district has 13,000 students at five high schools and five middle schools drawing from south Carlsbad, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Fairbanks Ranch, Solana Beach and Carmel Valley.
During the pandemic, the district’s policies on reopening schools led to major battles — dividing parents and forcing an interim school board member to step down. The embattled trustee, Ty Humes, lost a special election to Bronstein last November.
Plaintiff Montes — named a 78th Assembly District Woman of the Year in 2015 — is a founder and officer of a Solana Beach nonprofit: La Colonia Community Foundation. Chang’s background was not immediately confirmed.
Briggs, who ran an unsuccessful race for San Diego city attorney in 2020, CC’d his letter Monday night to county schools chief Gothold and Adrienne Konigar-Macklin, general counsel for the county Office of Education.
“Please remind all trustees and other employees that any and all evidence, including but not limited to text messages and/or e-mail communications on any person’s private device and/or account, must be preserved for potential use in the lawsuit,” Briggs wrote. “My clients are concerned about the possibility that electronic communications and other ‘writings’ … may be deleted or otherwise sequestered or destroyed.”
Updated at 12:59 a.m. Feb. 23, 2022
