Hello Tiger Family,
At December’s board meeting, a motion was passed to change the method of election of trustees. We want to take a moment to explain what that means and why we believe this change will enhance our democratic processes and ensure fair representation.
Our previous method of election was at-large, where all the candidates ran in one group and the person/people with the top votes won. We approved to change from at-large to an at-large place/position method. An at-large place/position method means that an applicant would sign up and run against the person in that place/position and the one(s) with the greatest number of votes wins that place/position. An at-large place/position method means candidates sign up to run for a specific place/ position. For example, this year there will be two places up for election and candidates would choose to run for either place 1 or place 2.
With our previous election method, there was potential for exclusion which can leave less-known contenders at a disadvantage. Another con of the previous method is that it opens itself up to minority underrepresentation. Very similar to standard at-large, smaller groups may struggle for representation. We want to ensure that everyone has a voice in our community. While voting in an at-large district is very simple and straightforward, the issues listed and the need to rectify those caused us to investigate an at-large place election method.
With an at-large place method, we believe that this will foster diversity and allow for a more balanced representation. It could reduce vote concentration, which simply means preventing domination of a few candidates. By having more diverse representation, we believe this will also foster diversity in viewpoints. While the ballot may look a bit more cumbersome in the election booth, the advantages of an at-large place district outweigh the longer ballot.
We’d like to make clear that there are no geographic boundaries with an at-large place district, meaning that every candidate will still be representing Gunter ISD as a whole. Within Region 10 districts, there are 30 that use the place/position method, 32 that use at-large and 2 that use a combination of those. Several of our surrounding school districts utilize the place/position election method.
It is our hope that understanding these subtleties can help us all appreciate the intricacies of our electoral systems. We are grateful for your support and please feel free to ask questions to any board member.
Sincerely,
Gunter ISD Board of Trustees