Modesto City Schools releases draft maps for trustee areas

Modesto City Schools has released draft maps showing four versions of how the dual district might divide into seven trustee areas. It will take public comment on all of them at four evening public hearings, two March 2 and two April 6.

The district is under the Modesto City Charter and got voter approval in November to change its at-large voting tradition, where the full district votes on all members, to electing by areas. The change is meant to increase representation for minority neighborhoods and comply with the California Voting Rights Act.

The four maps under consideration all show large rural areas radiating out from densely populated Modesto proper, where the Modesto City elementary district serves 15,272 students. Modesto City’s high school district, however, also serves students from seven other kindergarten-through-eighth-grade districts: Sylvan Union, Salida Union, Stanislaus Union, Empire Union, Hart-Ransom Union, Paradise and Shiloh. Modesto’s high school district has 15,100 students.

The two Modesto City districts have a common administration and single board, one of few such districts in California. The Modesto elementary district packs into 30 square miles, while its high schools cover 280 square miles. It is the sprawling high school district’s territory that is being divided, but the trustees elected will govern both.

All four maps have five trustee areas that include at least one Modesto City elementary school, easing concerns that the district’s younger students – more than half its enrollment – would be represented by a minority on the board. Its K-8 students are also overwhelmingly poor, with around 87 percent qualifying for additional state funding to serve low-income students.

Other concerns raised by community members as the board voted to start the process were representation for the district’s heavily minority south and west Modesto communities, and a voice for African Americans.

None of the maps serve a concentration of African Americans. Black families make up 3 to 5 percent of each trustee area across the board, according to demographic outlines prepared by National Demographics Corp.

Latinos make up 40 percent of the district overall, and each of the maps has one area where families that speak Spanish at home make up around 65 percent of the population.

Different splits for south and west Modesto, and for the wealthier northeastern section, show the greatest differences between the maps, though the listed priorities for each did not address wealth or ethnicity.

Map 1, made to create the most compact zones, has a core central Modesto area that includes the Airport District, and clumps together the most dense south and west neighborhoods. The northeast is split into a block defined by Briggsmore Avenue and Coffee Road, and a squat vase-shape spreading north from Floyd Avenue.

Map 2, made to best match high school boundaries, joins the Airport District and south Modesto, with west Modesto and rural areas in another zone. Northeastern Modesto is also more unified in this configuration.

Map 3, made to follow elementary school zones, lumps central and west Modesto with the Airport District, with the south Modesto zone including everything below Paradise Road and the Tuolumne River. It splits northeast Modesto into two zones along Sylvan Avenue.

Map 4, made to keep each existing trustee in a separate area, wiggles around to put areas of central, west and south Modesto in one zone with rural western districts. Downtown, the Airport District and south Modesto make up another section. Northeast Modesto again splits along Sylvan Avenue.

Incumbents would lose three seats under Maps 1 and 2, one seat using Map 3 and none on Map 4.

The map chosen by trustees, expected later in April or early May, will apply to seats for the 2017 election. A state law taking effect in 2018 mandates school districts shift to even-year elections if significantly more of its voters participate in general elections, which likely will mean another change for Modesto City Schools board balloting.

The trustee area maps will be redrawn following each census, with the next change anticipated to be around 2022. Modesto has a base of 115,025 voters and history of contested elections, making its split less prone to problems that smaller districts have found. Some have scrambled to find candidates or had barely 100 voters turn out to elect a board member.

This story was originally published February 23, 2017 at 3:52 PM with the headline "Modesto City Schools releases draft maps for trustee areas."