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Sunnyside School District on Aug. 12, 2024.
The Sunnyside School District has agreed to change its school board elections from at-large to district positions.
The school district reached an agreement the Yakima Valley-based group ELLA over the voting boundaries, according to a news release. ELLA stands for Empowering Latina Leadership and Action. The group was represented by the ACLU of Washington and attorney Molly Peach Matter.
ELLA sent notice in April of its intent to sue the district over alleged violations of the Washington Voting Rights Act.
“For too long, at-large voting in Sunnyside made it impossible for Latinos to elect candidates of their choice. Changing to a more representative system will ensure Latinx students and families have a meaningful say in how the school district is run,” Maria Fernandez, ELLA’s executive director, said in the release.
The ACLU and ELLA argued the at-large elections illegally dilute the Latino vote. Though the school district is 81% Latino, no Latino has ever beat a white candidate in a school district race, according to supporting documents from the ACLU.
The new system will be in place in time for the 2025 primary and general elections, when all five board seats will be up for reelection. Three of the districts will have an active majority Latino population, according to the release.
The agreement said the school district will work with a demographer to redraw the maps.
The current board members are Leticia Zesati, Linda Roberts, Jilliann Patterson, Jory Anderson and Stephen Berg.
“Once the concerns were brought to our attention, we agreed that the best course of action for the community would be to move to a district-based voting system, which we hope will increase voter turnout and input on issues critical to supporting our students and staff," school Superintendent Ryan Maxwell said in the release.
As part of the settlement, the school district will compensate the ACLU for legal fees of $50,000.
The Washington Voting Rights Act was established in 2018 and allowed for a process that cuts down on costly litigation when settling alleged voting rights violations.
In 2012, a similar lawsuit changed Yakima City Council elections. The ACLU said it found racially polarized voting was higher in Sunnyside than what was occurring in Yakima before the successful challenge.
In 2020, Yakima County agreed to get rid of at-large commissioner districts and create a new Latino-majority district in a settlement agreement.
This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, email news@yakimaherald.com.
Posted August 12, 2024
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