First in a series.
Midway through his first year as the immensely congenial superintendent of the School District, Josh Arnold was explaining why Culver City School Board members, and their colleagues across the state, recently were awarded an extra year in office.
“Years and years ago,” he was saying, “it was thought to be a best-practice for school board elections not to occur in the same year as presidential elections.
“As a rationale for that – and it makes a lot of sense – you want folks to focus on their local politics, under their elections, to be more keen and aware of that.”
However, American voting habits have changed drastically. It no longer was possible for lawmakers to ignore the badly faded interest in hometown elections.
Turnouts for exclusive local elections are “very, very small” compared to presidential elections.
“That really is what this change in the law is about,” Mr. Arnold said, “more participation in the engaged community in that process.”
In Culver City, School Board members from president Sue Robins to Dr. Steve Levin to Kathy Paspalis, to the newest members, Dr. Kelly Kent and Anne Allaire Burke (both of whom just completed their first year), have won an extra 12 months in what now will be their five-year terms.
School districts were given calendar leeway, five years, before tacking on the bonus year to members’ terms.
Why wait? said Supt. Arnold.
“We are deciding to get it done now,” he said. “We have petitioned, we have written a proposal to the L.A. County Registrar of Voters. They need to approve our idea.”
Mr. Arnold explained that “everybody gets an extra year because everybody’s cycle changes.”
The terms of Ms. Robins, Dr. Levin and Ms. Paspalis were due to expire this year. Instead, 2018 is the new expiration date.
Dr. Kent and Ms. Allaire Burke will be up for re-election in 2020 instead of ’19.
(To be continued)
