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India Currents gave me a voice in days I was very lost. Having my articles selected for publishing was very validating – Shailaja Dixit, Executive Director, Narika, Fremont
For more than 60 years, our top-ranked community colleges have helped tens of thousands of Silicon Valley students from every background transfer to some of the nation’s best universities and launch rewarding careers. Now the Foothill-De Anza Community College District is in the process of making a major change and wants the community’s input.
As the population of Santa Clara Valley has grown more diverse, our district has benefitted from the excellence that comes with embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion. So when district resident Sebastian Aguilar claimed the district’s process for electing its Board of Trustees led to racially polarized voting and violated his rights under the California Voting Rights Act, the board took action.
Foothill-De Anza is addressing this claim by moving away from having voters elect trustees through districtwide voting to having voters elect one resident from within each of five trustee areas to serve on the board.
Dividing Foothill-De Anza into five trustee areas of the roughly equal population takes thoughtful consideration in a district that spans eight cities, includes about 449,000 residents, and encompasses the Palo Alto Unified, Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School, and Fremont Union High School districts.
You can learn more about how the community can help by visiting www.fhda.edu/trustee-areas.
District residents can participate in the “districting” process in several ways:
- Attend public hearings– the next one is Oct. 4 at 7:00 p.m. to identify communities of interest
- Complete the Communities of Interest Survey
- Comment by email at TrusteeAreas@fhda.edu
- Use the mapping tool
- Sign up for email updates at TrusteeAreas@fhda.edu – write “keep me posted” in the subject line
The district is asking local residents to identify communities of interest that would benefit from being kept together for representation – ranging from the race- and language-based communities that are clustered together to other groups of people who live in the same geographic area and share common economic and social interests in relation to Foothill-De Anza. While race is an important consideration, it cannot be the predominant factor in drawing boundary lines.
Foothill-De Anza invites you to be part of this change.
Please visit www.fhda.edu/trustee-areas for more information.
