Turlock Unified school board approves new trustee area boundaries. What changes?
The Turlock Unified School District board approved a map Tuesday night that changes the geographic areas each trustee represents to reflect updated population numbers.
The redistricting process is required every 10 years to coincide with the U.S. census. The goal is to create areas with roughly equal populations and to fairly represent groups of voters.
Turlock school officials considered three maps publicly over three months and received feedback from trustees and community members.
“I am very happy with the transparency by which we were able to conduct this,” Assistant Superintendent Barney Gordon III said during the meeting.
The approved map changes area 7’s voting-age population from 49.89% Hispanic to 51.27% Hispanic and has another area in which the majority voting-age population is made up of minorities, according to the district.
One trustee, Daniel Benedict, voted no. Benedict, who represents area 5, did not comment on the reason for his vote during the meeting. In an email to The Modesto Bee, Benedict said he was “not compelled to vote for redistricting” because the existing map met state and federal regulations.
However, he said there’s “nothing wrong” with the map the board approved and he will “fully support the will of the Board.”
“There have been many distractions and disruptions over the past couple of years, and I don’t want my ‘No’ vote to add to that,” Benedict said by email. “My hope is that we can continue to focus on our job of educating our children.”
Trustee elections in November
Four trustee seats are up for election in November: areas two, three, four and six, according to terms listed on the school board’s website. Trustees must live in the district they represent.
Though all area boundaries were impacted by redistricting, each trustee will remain in his or her area number, spokeswoman Marie Russell said in an email. The new map does not change who is up for election in November, Russell said.
Trustee Anthony Silva asked how many people would have been eligible to vote in this year’s election under the previous map but would no longer be in an area with a trustee election under the new map. Gordon replied that the consultant the district worked with said the issue is complex and it was not able to prepare that information.
Silva also asked if there were any groups the board wouldn’t please with the new map.
“There’s no way to draw maps that meet all the requirements that also pleases everybody in the community, unfortunately,” Gordon responded.
Most comments district officials received focused on making boundaries more compact, keeping communities together, having majority-minority districts and conducting the process with transparency, Gordon said.
A demographic consulting firm helped the district prepare maps to meet legal requirements and reflect feedback. Gordon said 80 people voted on a map in an online survey, and 71 of them preferred the map the board approved.
Because the school district dips into Merced County, the map now goes to both the Stanislaus and Merced county superintendents of schools, according to a resolution approving the map. The Stanislaus and Merced election offices may make minor adjustments to the map as necessary for the November election, according to the resolution.
Trustee areas 4 and 7 extend into Merced County, Russell said by email.
The map and resolution may be found under item XII.A. in the meeting agenda for Feb. 15.
