Brewer Storefront, the pro bono law firm led by Bill Brewer which recent settled a Voting Rights Act lawsuit against Richardson ISD, filed a similar suit today/Tuesday in federal court against Lewisville ISD. The complaint alleges that LISD’s at-large voting system for electing trustees keeps Hispanic, African American and Asian voters from electing the school board members of their choice.

LISD’s seven trustees, their eight-member leadership team and their superintendent are all white. In 2017-18, 41 percent of LISD students were white, 30 percent were Hispanic, 14 percent were Asian and 11 percent were African American. The lawsuit notes an achievement gap between LISD schools serving mostly white students versus schools with a majority of non-white kids.

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The suit, filed on behalf of LISD parent Frank Vaughan, seeks to halt the May 4 school board elections and replace the at-large system with seven single-member districts.

“Our client believes the voting scheme utilized by Lewisville ISD unfairly denies people of color a fair opportunity to elect candidates of their choosing – trustees that represent their interests, schools and communities,” said Brewer in a news release. “We believe the school board should adopt a more representative electoral process to serve this multiracial and ethnically diverse school district.”

Brewer sued RISD in January of 2018 on behalf of former trustee David Tyson, and the settlement last month resulted in a plan to implement five single-member districts and elect two trustees at-large. The board approved five new districts and now awaits approval from the judge to delay the May 4 election until November. Although no financial judgment was awarded to the plaintiff, attorney’s fees of $385,000 were paid by RISD to Brewer Storefront to settle the suit.

In addition to RISD, Brewer has been successful with similar lawsuits in Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Irving and Grand Prairie.

At the time of this writing, there’s been no response yet from Lewisville ISD. And Brewer hasn’t released the name of any other school district it’s eyeing for future suits.

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  • Carol Toler

    Blogger CAROL TOLER and her husband, Toby, are the parents of four LHHS graduates. She has an MBA from SMU and is the proud recipient of the Exchange Club of LH's Unsung Hero Award and Councilman McGough's Blake Anderson Public Service Award. She received LHHS PTA's Extended Service Award, FMJH PTA's Charger Award and a Life Membership from the LHFC PTA. She has moderated candidate debates for Dallas Mayor, Dallas City Council and RISD Trustee races and taught seminars on garnering publicity for nonprofits. She completed training with Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation and Inside RISD, and she's a sustaining member of LH Women's League. She has served on the boards of After8 to Educate, Dallas Free Press, Healing Hands Ministries and Camp Sweeney and chaired fundraisers for multiple Dallas nonprofits. Email ctoler@advocatemag.com.