Merit vs. spoils

The spoils system and the merit system are two different things. A spoils system is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party.The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system. 
The spoils system was always used until after the Civil war system's abuses prompted civil service reforms designed to cut down the number of government posts filled by appointment and to award jobs on the basis of merit. The Pendleton Federal Civil Service Act of 1883 provided the initial basis for the adoption of the merit system in the recruitment of federal officials, and by the late 20th century merit systems had almost completely replaced the spoils system at the federal, state, and city levels of government.

There are more than 100 merit system school and college districts in California which employ almost 60 percent of the total classified (non-certificated) school employees in the state.  A merit system  may be voted into a district by local Board of Trustees action, by a majority vote of the district's classified employees, or by a majority vote of the voting electors of the school or college district.  The merit system was first adopted in Santa Monica College as part of the Santa Monica City Schools by the Board of Education on May 9, 1938.