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ABC Unified School District (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Brian Hews
The top official at the ABC Unified School District does not believe that they have violated the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 after a law suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Dr. Mary Sieu, Superintendent of the Cerritos-based public school system told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper in an interview that “our district does not believe that we have violated the California Voting Rights Act, and we are reviewing the law suit at this time.”
Sieu did not want to discuss specific details about the law suit but said that she was “initially surprised” to learn that the suit was filed.
On Wednesday, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund announced that they will be “joining” forces with the law firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho in the suit against the ABCUSD that contends that the school district “currently uses an at-large method to elect its Board of Trustees, which has denied Latino residents the opportunity to elect Board Members of their choice for more than fifteen years.”
A Special Meeting of the ABC Unified School Board of Education will be held next Tuesday, April 16, at 5 p.m. at the Districts headquarters located at Norwalk Boulevard and 166th Street in Cerritos to specifically discus the matter.
The seven member Board will immediately go into a private “closed session” where it is expected that the item will be discussed with legal representatives from the District.
Sieu said that a public statement would be issued after the closed session if any “official decision or action is taken.”
It doesn’t matter. Nobody effectively defends those lawsuits and they will go to district elections. Guaranteed that will ruin the school district. Just like it has done everywhere it’s been implemented.
City of Palmdale fought through trial (ended last week). Millions spent on their attorneys, and still the result will almost certainly be the same — a finding that Palmdale violated the CVRA. The only difference is that those who fight, and spend millions in taxpayer dollars to protect their own board/council seats, end up paying way more to attorneys (the jurisdiction’s attorneys, and ultimately the plaintiffs’ attorneys as well).
Sunday, May 19, 2013. RE: ABC District Lines | S District | Not liking the pseudo imaginary (ABC) line, the southern district, will create for the property owners and students residing south of 195th or Del Amo. City already has division west of 605 and north of the 91 Fwy. If the RR spur is activated, along with overlay from the school district, we may be creating a set of tier social and economic levels, which we have no long term data to analyze. Our insurance premiums are divided in to 3 sections for Cerritos, now with this new line,… Read more »
Friday, April 12, 2013. President of the school should not be giving personal opine, unless followed by a Legal Opinion from a judge or attorney. If the president really cared about the residents, the will of the residents would have been voted on decades ago. This is not new and has been a virus with all the cities being served by ABCUSD, including the island communities in Long Beach. This is another reason why I was not in favor of the La Cuesta Villa proposal, ( Joint Venture) as the property was in Cerritos and would be an ongoing fite… Read more »
Who is Nguyen? See link with correct school board members:
http://www.abcusd.k12.ca.us/pages/ABC_Unified_School_District/Departments/superintendent/1346863840361718546
If you are so concerned about bridging the gap between China and the USA – wouldn’t a district election only propel that? Since “China” is the majority here – they will vote for “China” to have the most funds.
Again – whose ideals in China are we forging?
Monday, April 15, 2013. Sections of ABCUSD are predominately Chinese origin. But if the district was divided, poss. may have more Latino-India voter influence. Just feel sorry, Haw Gardens has no repes, neither does E Lakewood and seldom Artesia. Sad day, but West Cerritos pay taxes in 90703, but has no opine, as located in Bellflower USD. Then take the southern most section of ABCUSD, belongs to Long Beach, don’t think ever is ABCUSD has Long Beach residents been represented by vote! FYI: Many students in SE section of Cerritos, do not attend ABC as either chooses La Palma Schools/… Read more »