Term Limits Find Few Friends on School Boards

Despite polls that indicate popular support for term limits, the issue will not appear on a single school board ballot this November in Orange County or elsewhere in California.

Friday was the deadline for school districts to submit ballot initiatives to county governments, and none did. Since a state law took effect in January authorizing school board officials to adopt term limits, not one school district in the state has put the issue on the November ballot.

Even in government-wary Orange County, where a poll conducted by UC Irvine in March found that 79% of the residents favor term limits for the County Board of Supervisors, most people apparently do not support such a measure at the school board level.

“It really hasn’t been an issue at our meetings,” said Rebecca Gomez, president of the PTA Council for the Tustin Unified School District, where a term-limit proposal was voted down in June.

Term-limit initiatives could also be placed on the November ballot by citizens, who have until Aug. 9 to submit sufficient signatures. But so far in Orange County, only one such effort is underway.

This November, 79 school board positions will be on ballots in the county.

Since January, term limits have been proposed in only six of the county’s 28 school districts, five of which have voted them down.

The latest action was by the Garden Grove Unified School District board, which killed a term-limit proposal at last week’s meeting. Trustee Bob Harden, who introduced the proposal, said he thinks a member should serve only two consecutive, four-year terms.

“The whole idea of representative government is built on the idea that we occasionally change representatives,” Harden said. “The best representation is to roll people over and bring new ideas every few years.”

Harden pointed out that Garden Grove voters in March approved a two-term limit for their four council members and a four-term limit for the mayor.

“Seventy percent of the city voted for term limits on the City Council,” Harden said. “That statistic is consistent with the statewide polling for term limits. We’re trying to represent the majority interest.”

Harden, who successfully unseated a 13-year board member in 1994, said he favors term limits because incumbents too often have an advantage and tend to gain the endorsement of teachers unions.

But others contend that because a school board’s constituency is smaller than that of most public officials, voters already have adequate control.

“If you’re not doing what’s best for the constituency, you are going to get voted out,” Anaheim Union High School Trustee Robert Stewart said. “You already have term limits in effect. It’s called the ballot box.”

Opponents say term limits would encourage “career politicians” who would use the school board as a means to higher office.

“A term limit is not going to get a person out of political life,” Stewart said. “It would be forcing turnover on people who may be doing a good job. . . . People would constantly be using it as a steppingstone to get into another office.”

In most districts, board members with the longest tenure have been in office four to five terms. Centralia School District Trustee Robert Lindsay has served for 31 years.

Those who challenge term limits say two terms is not enough time for any member to effectively understand the particulars of a school district.

“In education, you’ve got a learning curve that goes straight up,” Stewart said. “Unless you’re heavily involved in schools, it takes two years to learn the state and federal education codes, and all the budgeting and financial matters. Things in education, like demographics and local issues, change very dramatically.”

The Anaheim Union board is expected to discuss a term limit proposal at its next meeting on July 18. Members will not try to meet this year’s election deadline. In addition to Garden Grove, the Tustin, Westminster, Saddleback Valley and Anaheim City school districts have voted against term limits.

Saddleback Valley Unified Trustee Frank L. Ury is bypassing the board’s rejection of his term-limit proposal in May by launching a citizen petition drive. He needs to gain 10,000 signatures, or 10% of the registered voters, by Aug. 9 to get on the November ballot. If he doesn’t succeed this fall, he will push for the next election.

“It’s going to happen, “ Ury said. “And when it does, the education establishment and all the ‘educrats’ are going to be kicking and screaming.”