REGION — The San Dieguito Union High School District’s three options for future electoral districts have one thing in common: a high school absent from trustee John Salazar’s district.
The region’s largest high school district is pre-emptively moving forward with the transition from at-large elections to ones where voters choose a trustee based on their region after several cities in North County faced the threat of litigation if they didn’t make the switch.
San Dieguito officials released three draft maps last week and are hosting a series of workshops over the next few weeks to receive public feedback on them.
All three variations place the five current trustees in different districts of similar population sizes. In each iteration, District 1 includes much of Encinitas and District 2 is largely composed of South Carlsbad.
District’s 3, 4 and 5 change in each of the variations, which have been designated “Green,” “Orange” and “Purple.
In the Green map, District 3 includes Cardiff and coastal Solana Beach and Del Mar, a sliver bound by Interstate 5 to the east and Del Mar Heights Road to the south. District 4 is largely Rancho Santa Fe and Carmel Valley north of State Route 56, and District 5 is Carmel Valley south of the 56.
In the Orange map, District 1’s boundaries include coastal Cardiff, and District 3 includes inland Cardiff and Rancho Santa Fe north of Fairbanks Ranch. District 4 includes Fairbanks Ranch and the eastern half of Carmel Valley, and District 5 includes Del Mar, Del Mar Heights and the west side of Carmel Valley.
The final map, Purple, has the final three districts horizontally oriented, with District 3 including Solana Beach and northern Rancho Santa Fe, District 4 including Del Mar, Del Mar Heights, Fairbanks Ranch and southern Rancho Santa Fe, and District 5 including Carmel Valley proper.
In the first map, District 4, where current trustee Joyce Dalessandro resides, would include both Torrey Pines High School and Canyon Crest Academy, but in the other iterations, Torrey Pines and Canyon Crest would be split between her and Amy Herman’s district, District 5.
Salazar, whose district in all three maps is District 3, would not have a high school represented, but would include the recently rebuilt Earl Warren Middle School. In all three map iterations, San Dieguito High School Academy lies right on the border of District 1, Maureen Muir’s District, and Salazar’s.
La Costa Canyon sits in District 2, currently held by Beth Hergesheimer.
The final three meetings where the public can comment on the districts are on Nov. 16, Nov. 28 and Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. at the district office. The trustees are expected to vote on the district map at the final meeting.
The districts are divided so that each has between 32,500 and 33,700 people.
Residents can view the maps online at cvra.sduhsd.net.
