The Foothill-De Anza Community College District (FHDA) is seeking community input as it plans to transition from at-large elections to a model divided geographically into trustee areas. The effort stems from a resolution put in place in March 2019 by the Board of Trustees to change the election process, following allegations of a racially discriminatory voting system and possible exposure to legal action under the California Voting Rights Act. You can learn more about why this transition is taking place here. Changes are set to be implemented by November 2022.
The FHDA includes Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Stanford, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and parts of Saratoga and San Jose, representing the Palo Alto Unified, Mountain View Los Altos Union High School and Fremont Union High School districts. The district includes over 400,000 residents which will be split into five areas, with boundaries of roughly equal population size, and each represented by one trustee who resides in the respective area.
The FHDA Board of Trustees are now working to determine how boundaries are drawn, with public input. Community members can offer comment at upcoming public hearings, scheduled for Monday, September 13 at 7:00 p.m. and Monday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. Residents can also complete the online community survey available here. FHDA is looking to hear community input on communities of interest, defined as ‘populations who reside near each other and share common values and circumstances.’ “Bringing like people together for fair and effective representation is one of the key principles in drawing the new trustee area boundary lines,” district officials said.
You can learn more about the new election process and access the public survey here.
The agendas and location information for the upcoming public hearings can be found here.