Souza seeks to revamp school trustee elections

By BETHANY BLITZ

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — State Sen. Mary Souza is pitching legislation that aims to increase voter turnout at Idaho school trustee elections.

Souza, a Coeur d’Alene Republican, will introduce a potential bill today to the Senate State Affairs Committee.

The proposed legislation calls for allowing school boards to decide whether they want to keep trustee voting within the existing trustee zones or open trustee voting district-wide. It would also move the trustee election date from May to November, during the general election.

Souza said the legislation would “compel school boards to work with county clerks to align the trustee zones with voter precincts.”

“We need to increase voter attention to school board elections because they are very important,” Souza said.

The proposed bill originated, Souza said, from a few bills she worked on last year that did not get approved.

Tom Hearn, a Coeur d’Alene School District trustee and the Region 1 chair of the Idaho School Board Association, said the ISBA has already come out against the first part of Souza’s proposal, noting that opening up trustee voting district-wide would make running for a trustee position on a school board more expensive and less appealing.

“Especially in rural districts, we felt it is more difficult for districts to recruit school board candidates,” Hearn said. “I ran for the Legislature and I know firsthand the difference in cost of running for a school board zone compared to a whole county.”

As far as changing the date of the election every other year, Souza said the election would have better voter turnout in November and get more people involved in the school districts.

Hearn said he has heard some concerns that the people who show up in May do not represent the community as a whole, but noted he has not seen any proof of it.

Souza said aligning trustee zones with voting precincts would help limit stresses and problems for elections offices.

“When you have zones that cross over two or three different voting precincts, it creates a lot of problems with accuracy,” she said. “This is something that should happen anyway; it’s more like housekeeping.”

Hearn said he does not have an opinion about zone alignment but he did want to encourage Souza to talk with Idaho school boards before introducing legislation that would affect school districts and school board elections.

“They are certainly not required [to do so], however ISBA represents all of the school districts in Idaho and the charter schools, and our support or opposition to legislation, I think, is important,” he said.

The Senate State Affairs Committee will decide whether to print the bill for further legislative consideration.