What's happening
This bill allows the Chester Union Free School District to create school election wards for electing trustees, subject to voter approval and anti-discrimination safeguards.
Why it matters
Requires extensive public input and anti-discrimination review. Before adopting election wards, the school board must assess and publicly confirm that no group would be disenfranchised or discriminated against by the change, holding at least three public hearings and publishing findings. This centers equity in school board representation.
Mandates transparent, community-driven ward creation. The board must define ward boundaries in advance, ensure wards are contiguous and balanced in population, and revise maps after each census if needed. This process must consider demographic and community factors to avoid gerrymandering and ensure fair representation.
Establishes clear procedures for accountability and change. If voters reject new or revised ward maps (especially after a census), the board must try again or revert to at-large elections, ensuring that the community retains control over how trustees are elected and that outdated or unfair divisions cannot persist indefinitely.
Sets detailed rules for elections and trustee terms. The bill outlines how trustee terms are staggered and filled, how vacancies are managed, and allows the community to later abolish the ward system via referendum, making the governance structure adaptable to changing community needs.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Create School Election Wards
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 39
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to education
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to education
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 40–22
- Amended on third reading 5884a
- Ordered to third reading cal.1169
- Committee discharged and committed to rules
- Referred to education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Create School Election Wards
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Colin Schmitt
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5884--A Cal. No. 1169
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 16, 2019
Introduced by Sen. SKOUFIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education -- committee discharged and said bill committed to the Committee on Rules -ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the establishment of school election wards in the Chester Union Free School District
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 1702 of the education law is amended by adding a new subdivision 4 to read as follows:
4. a. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the board of education of the Chester Union Free School District may, by resolution and subject to a mandatory referendum, establish school election wards for purposes of electing individual trustees. There shall be at least three, but no more than nine, school election wards within the school district. One trustee shall be chosen from each ward by the qualified voters therein. Within such resolution, the board of education may require that a trustee elected to represent a ward shall be a resident of such ward. Such resolution shall also provide for the signature requirements for nominating petitions consistent with the applicable provisions of this chapter.
b. (i) A resolution by the board of education, which shall be passed no less than one hundred eighty days prior to a related referendum being placed before the qualified voters of the school district during the annual meeting and election, shall include an assessment and finding, which shall take into account any historic disenfranchisement or discrimination against any group of individuals within the school district based upon race, gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, or sexual orientation, including that no disenfranchisement or discrimination would result from the adoption of the proposed resol-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11782-02-9
S. 5884--A 2
ution. The board of education shall conduct no fewer than three public hearings on such resolution.
(ii) Such public hearings shall be conducted not less than thirty nor more than ninety days prior to a vote on the resolution by a majority of the qualified voters of the district. The district clerk shall give notice of the public hearing by publishing a notice five times within fifteen days preceding the hearing, on the district's website and in two newspapers if there shall be two, or in one newspaper if there shall be but one, having general circulation within such district. But if no newspaper shall then have general circulation therein, said notice shall be posted in at least twenty of the most public places in said district fifteen days before the time of the first hearing.
(iii) Following such public hearings, a proposition for approval of such resolution and the boundaries of proposed school election wards by a majority of the qualified voters of such district shall be submitted at the next succeeding annual meeting and election. The district clerk shall give notice of such proposition by publishing notice prior to the election, in the same manner and publication as the public hearings, set forth in this section, specifying the time when and place or places where such election will be held, the hours during which the polls will remain open for the purpose of receiving ballots, and setting forth in full the language of the proposition to be approved at such election. In any event, there shall be at least one polling location for every fifteen thousand eligible voters in the district and the hours of the election shall commence no later than six o'clock in the morning and shall end no earlier than nine o'clock in the evening.
(iv) At least fifteen days prior to conducting public hearings, the board of education shall define and publish, by resolution, boundaries of each of the proposed school election wards. Should such map be altered as a result of the public hearings, the amended map shall be published pursuant to this paragraph no later than fifteen days before the election. Such wards shall be contiguous and each ward shall contain as nearly as possible the same number of inhabitants. Each ward shall also conform as closely as possible with the attendance zone of the school district, conform as closely as possible with geographic and other physical boundaries, and retain contiguous communities of interest.
(v) A map of each ward and the boundaries thereof shall be created with the original filed with the district clerk within ten days of the resolution and copies thereof filed in the board of elections of the county. Upon each issuance of a federal decennial census, the board of education shall either: (1) make a written finding that, upon examination of the decennial census, the current school election wards contain nearly as possible the same number of inhabitants and that no discrimination or disenfranchisement would result if the wards remained as established; or (2) the school election wards shall be redefined by resolution of the board of education, after a public hearing thereon, and approval by the qualified voters of the school district. If the qualified voters of the school district shall not approve of the resolution, the board of education shall submit a second resolution for approval by the qualified voters of the school district, after a public hearing thereon, within ninety days. If the qualified voters of the school district shall not approve of such resolution for a second time, the board of education shall continue the membership and terms of the current board until the next annual meeting and election at which time the terms of all current trustees shall terminate. At the next annual
S. 5884--A 3
meeting and election, trustees shall be elected by a vote of the qualified voters of the school district pursuant to article forty-three of this chapter.
(vi) After a school election ward system shall have been established, the term of every existing trustee shall terminate on the thirtieth day of June next succeeding the first annual meeting and election following voter approval of the referendum, at which time the terms for each elected school ward trustee shall commence.
c. The term of office of each trustee from a school election ward shall be three, four, or five years, to be determined at the discretion of the board of education by resolution prior to the referendum; provided however that the resolution shall also designate that in the first annual meeting and election after the adoption of a school election ward system, the initial terms shall be divided into terms of three, four, or five years so that as nearly as possible an equal number of trustees shall be elected each year. In each election cycle thereafter, the terms of office shall be uniform. In each school election ward, the candidate receiving a plurality of votes in each school election ward shall be declared elected to that position.
d. Whenever a vacancy shall occur or exist in the office of a ward trustee of a board of education, such vacancy shall be filled pursuant to this article and part one of article forty-three of this chapter.
e. Except as provided in this subdivision, all provisions of this article, article forty-one, and article forty-three of this chapter or of any other general law relating to or affecting the election of trustees in a union free school district shall apply to school election wards organized pursuant to this subdivision and to the election of trustees by the qualified voters of a school district as established pursuant to paragraph f and subparagraph (iv) of paragraph b of this subdivision.
f. A board of education of a union free school district which has established school election wards pursuant to this subdivision may, by resolution and subject to a mandatory referendum, abolish the school election ward system and return to election of trustees by a vote of the qualified voters of the school district. Adoption, assessment, public hearing and notice, and voting requirements of such resolution and referendum shall comply with the provisions of subparagraphs (i), (ii), and (iii) of paragraph b of this subdivision.
g. For the purpose of this subdivision, "contiguous community of interest" means a contiguous population which shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to the establishment of school election wards in the Chester Union Free School District
Purpose
This bill, which was requested by the Chester Union Free School District, would give the district, which is located in Orange County, the authority to establish school election wards for purposes of elect- ing individual school board members.
Summary of provisions
Section 1: Amends section 1702 of the election law by adding a new subdivision 4 to authorize the Chester Union Free School District, by resolution and subject to a mandatory referendum, to establish school election wards for purposes of electing individual school board members. The section lays out a detailed process for drawing ward boundaries, setting up and running a referendum election, the terms of office of newly elected members, and other provisions necessary to implement the ward system.
Section 2: Effective date.
Justification
This legislation has been introduced at the request of the Chester Union Free School District. Under current law, union free school districts, upon their own motion, may divide into separate election districts. However, current law does not permit a school district to restrict candidates to run for office only in the election district where they reside, or to limit voters to elect a candidate only from the election district where they reside. In order to prevent over representation or under representation of one geographical area over the other, this legislation would give voters the option to approve a referendum that will restrict the election of candidates to the board of education to the particular election district where those candidates and the voters of that particular election district reside.
Legislative history
None.
Fiscal implications
None to the state.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.