Commentary: Single-member district elections will better serve Oxnard

By Denis O’Leary / Guest contributor

Be it a smiling teacher at the door as a child walks in the classroom, a new school site or solar panels on the playgrounds to generate clean electricity, there are many ways to educate the child and our surrounding community.

The role of education is to empower leaders, and the learning can come from example to adults who drive past a playground as well as the child with a ball being called back to class.

The Oxnard School District has another opportunity to serve and educate our community. Single-member district elections of the representing Board of Trustees could take some of the mystery away from empowering our community and would also open the door to many a future leader.

The California Voters Rights Act was signed into law in 2001 and expanded on the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Its intent was to make it easier for too often disenfranchised minority groups to elect like-minded representatives to office.

In 2007, the California State Supreme court ruled The California Voters Rights Act constitutional in Sanchez v. The City of Modesto. The city claimed that the act was unconstitutional because it inherently favored people of color; the court concluded that the act was not racist in nature and returned to case to trial court.

I have been a Trustee on the Oxnard School District for 8 years and I have sat with mostly Trustees of minority heritage. Watching the broadcast on the local cable TV channel, a viewer may not see an issue in our district.

I recall the brother of the late Mr. Juan Soria coming from Los Angeles to a meeting because word was that a school designated several years before to bear the name of the local civil rights activist may have lost the support of at least one trustee. The elderly gentleman came to the podium for a three-minute discourse and went after the one Anglo sitting on the school board. I sat and listened, knowing that the brother had taken what could have been the logical assumption after looking at our five-member panel.

During a break, the man along with other family members came to apologize, saying that he was later told that “Mr. O’Leary” was not only supporting the name being placed on the school but spoke fluent Spanish and volunteered with the United Farm Workers. It had been indeed a Latino Trustee who had been the catalyst of the misdirected discussion.

Latinos and African Americans have been elected to the Oxnard School District Board of Trustees. Most have also been either retired teachers or administrators from the same school district, or spouses of long time employees.

To my knowledge, not one trustee in recent history has lived in South Oxnard, the Lemonwood community, nor La Colonia.  Some have lived in gated communities, or near the golf course.

I see no problem in reaping a comfortable living after a career in education or in the City of Oxnard, but are the issues of the first generation or second generation families in the less affluent neighborhoods of Oxnard heard in policy?

Dividing the Oxnard School District into five equal bodies would better guarantee that the concerns and aspirations of Oxnard’s least heard populations be better served.

Critics of the California Voters Rights Act argue that it inappropriately makes race a predominant factor in elections and that it does not make sense to eliminate the requirement to establish a geographic district where there is a minority concentration.

According to the US Census of 2010, Oxnard has 197,899 persons living within the city limits. From this population, 73.5 percent are Latino, 14.9 percent are “White person, not Hispanic” and 2.9 percent are African American.

The census from Oxnard also tells us that the per capita annual income is $20,613.

Oxnard as a whole has been very comfortable with its groomed political representation.  Long time family names and successful service minded workers have every right to run for political office. So does the next-door neighbor who may not have the funds to mail out a flier to every corner of the city.

It may be easy to criticize political decisions made by local officials. Criticism can also be healthy, and even necessary for an advancing community. Single-member district elections in the Oxnard School District will not stop critics; in fact it may increase the criticism, but it will more than likely also increase participation in once disenfranchised populations.

Cesar Chavez once said that, “The end of all education should surely be the service to others.” The Oxnard School District can once again be the educational source to those we serve.

The at-large system of the past has brought us to where we are today. Oxnard is an ever growing population that has yielded to neighboring political forces that are often much smaller.

Oxnard has finally won the right to not be divided up to back fill progressive voters in other state and federal political bases.  Oxnard is now at a point that the largest population in the tri-counties can find its proper voice.

Once the Oxnard School District has given a voice to its less heard majorities, perhaps the high school district and City of Oxnard will follow.

Not only will Oxnard not be divided up to empower others who live far from its city boundaries and who have greater concerns for those who do not live in or reflect the values of those who live in Oxnard, but Oxnard can discuss its own concerns and aspirations.

Single-member district elections within Oxnard will ruffle the political feathers of some elected officials whose homes are physically very close to each other.

Some political bases have been built up over generations. Voters will not be able to take for granted that some schools in some neighborhoods will be better equipped than others, that police lines will be only on certain sectors and that the potholes may be filled in some streets faster than in other parts of the city.

It will be easier for new ideas to enter into races and less expensive for the person to campaign for support in that candidate’s smaller neighborhood.

Single-member district elections will not only be good for the school districts and the City of Oxnard; it’s the law.