The school board unanimously voted Thursday to change the election of trustees from an “at large” election to one in which members are elected by small areas. The move was in compliance with the California Voting Rights Act, and has been open to public discussion for several months.

The board has been exploring several map options, which each divided the area into different sectors. They were based on community outlines, school boundaries, geography and other factors.

The chosen map, called the “Cranberry 1” map, uses El Camino Real and high school attendance areas as boundaries while keeping Del Mar Heights and Carmel Valley together, said Jonathan Salt, a lawyer for the district at the meeting. One community speaker, Ria Stewart, pointed out that it also keeps elementary schools like the Cardiff school district together.

Though the vote was unanimous, not all community members who spoke wanted the winning map. Wendy Gump, who spoke multiple times at the meeting about wanting “new blood” on the board, suggested a different map (the Tan Map) for that reason.

However, Superintendent Eric Dill said the majority of email comments to the district about the CVRA supported the Cranberry map, with 87 promoting it and only a few emails promoting any of the other maps.

The move was in response to incidents across the state where cities and districts have been sued into compliance with the state voting rights act, which forces small district elections in an effort to give stronger representation to minority residents, especially Latinos.