Modesto City Schools to split board areas in time for November vote

The Modesto City Schools board took a decisive step toward dividing the district’s sprawling high school territory into seven trustee areas, pledging to get it done in time for election of a majority of its seats in November.

Four board seats will be up for election this year, with the split likely to remove one or more incumbents. While Cindy Marks, David Allen, Sue Zwahlen and Chad Brown live the farthest apart – near other trustees, but not each other – none lives in west or south Modesto, areas sure to get their own seats. The remaining trustees will finish their terms and in 2019 those three seats will be elected by area as well.

The divisions will be decided in April or May, with at least three public hearings and probably a forum to come first. But battle lines are already being drawn, community activists made clear Tuesday evening.

Addressing the lack of trustees from low-income areas, Jacque Wilson said, “We have to change this. Whatever we have right now is not working for certain communities.” Wilson works with Advocates for Justice, a Modesto group that mentors black and at-risk teens.

Latinos make up the majority of Modesto City Schools students, grandparent Miguel Donoso told the board.

“I want to see at least three Latinos up there,” he said. “We need to get minority representation.”

All the existing trustees are white. But board member John Walker, who was raised by his black stepfather and whose wife is Latina, bristled at audience suggestions that minorities had no representation.

“You can’t judge a book by its cover,” he said.

“Even though I may not look Hispanic, I am half Hispanic,” said student board member Dominic Barandica, noting he is bilingual and the grandson of immigrants.

Those who want to see change should consider running for the board, said board President Zwahlen.

“You’re here tonight. You’re involved,” she said.

The trustee areas must be equal in population and, to the greatest extent possible, represent communities, explained Douglas Johnson, president of the National Demographics Corp. To comply with the California Voting Rights Act, areas with high minority populations must be given consideration, he said.

The lack of a voice in local leadership is what drew the city of Modesto into the first of many CVRA lawsuits targeting at-large seats for local school boards and city councils. All have been decided in favor of the plaintiff and all proved costly, even when the filing spurred immediate compliance, MCS attorney Roman Muñoz said at community forums in advance of a vote to allow the split.

Measure F was approved by 68 percent of Modesto City Schools voters, giving the go-ahead to reword the city of Modesto charter and open the door for a school board elected by area. The board is now all elected at-large, meaning all voters in the far-flung high school district choose trustees. The expense of campaigning across the vast expanse, with its 116,672 voters spread across in Modesto, Salida, Empire and parts of Riverbank, works against low-income candidates and neighborhood leaders, say advocates for the switch.

Possible configurations could follow geographic lines, such as major roads or a river, or line up generally with the boundary lines of Modesto’s seven large high schools, or its seven so-called feeder districts – and here is where things get complicated for Modesto City Schools.

Out of just under 1,000 school districts in California, about a dozen are composed of districts that have paired up to share administrative duties under a single school board. MCS’ high school district and elementary district do that under the joint title of Modesto City Schools.

The two districts are too different to become a Modesto unified. The high school boundaries encompass 280 square miles, only 30 of them covered by MCS’ elementary district. Seven other kindergarten through eighth-grade districts – Sylvan, Empire, Hart-Ransom, Paradise, Salida, Shiloh and Stanislaus Union – also send their students to Modesto high schools.

Despite its more than ninefold advantage in acreage, the high school district serves about the same number of students as MCS’ elementary and junior high schools. High school goes for only four of the 12 school years, for one thing. For another, the elementary district covers the most densely populated areas of Modesto: the west, south and central parts of the city.

That urban territory includes the greatest number of immigrants and low-income families. Hart-Ransom, Paradise and Shiloh districts, on the other hand, serve farm kids from rural areas. Empire and Salida are small towns fiercely protective of their not-Modesto identity. Sylvan serves the wealthier northeast area of Modesto and east Riverbank, and Stanislaus Union covers a mix of neighborhoods in Modesto’s northwest.

All of those different needs and priorities compete for limited dollars, making decisions always a balancing act for the at-large board. How the lines are drawn could change that balance, pointed out retired school facilities planner Henry Patrino.

“You have a material flaw in the direction you are proceeding,” he said. Dividing the seven trustee areas into the seven high school attendance areas leaves the elementary district – half the students – with less representation, Patrino said.

“You will have three trustees on the board who represent downtown Modesto, the three older high schools and all of the elementary kids. You will have four trustees (who) represent virtually only high school students,” he said. If that happens, Patrino said, “You just completely disenfranchised the very kids the courts are trying to help. You just blew it.”

Another public hearing is scheduled for the next regular board meeting Feb. 6. Maps with several division options will be available shortly after that meeting and must have two airings for public comment before being adopted. Johnson pledged the process would finish in time to meet county election deadlines in May.

This story was originally published January 22, 2017 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Modesto City Schools to split board areas in time for November vote."