Not so F-ast, Modesto City Schools

On June 7, Measure F will appear on the ballot (again). Simply put, voters will be asked whether or not to amend the city charter and allow Modesto City Schools to change from electing board members at large, serving the entire district, or as trustees in a designated area.

This effort is in response to recent legal cases where the courts have found that boards elected at large do not appropriately represent all constituencies within a district. They have held that forcing districts to elect candidates from less demographically diverse areas improves representation of many socio-economically disadvantaged and minority children.

I have never fully understood why the Modesto City Charter addresses Modesto City Schools on this topic, since none of the other several school districts that have territory within the city of Modesto – Sylvan Union, Stanislaus Union, Salida Union, etc. – are mentioned. However, now that Measure F has attracted some attention, a more careful analysis reveals the folks who wrote this provision knew what they were doing.

First, keep in mind a few facts:

▪ Modesto High School District is geographically about five times greater than the size of Modesto City Elementary District. Even though they are technically separate districts, they are governed by a common board and administration.

▪ Over half of the K-8 students who eventually matriculate to the Modesto High School District start out in elementary schools in different school districts, each with its own board and administration.

▪ The current at-large method of election to the school board, even though flawed in geographic student representation, at least provides equitable representation for students across all these various districts.

▪ Of the nearly 1,000 school districts in California, I couldn’t find any separate school districts with different boundaries governed by a common board and common administration like we have in Modesto. Even if I missed one or two, this makes MCS unique, or nearly so. What’s important is that no districts with this governance structure have been tested in court. It appears all districts that have set precedents on this subject have only a single set of geographic boundaries.

Imagine a little into the future. Measure F has passed and MCS, in response to well-intentioned public pressure, forms a committee to draft a trustee area map. Given the geographic boundaries and the population distribution, it’s easy to see the possibility that four of the board’s seven members could easily be from areas with a high school-only constituency. This outcome would meet requirements set in law, so the lawyers will probably advise that it’s legal. Bravo. You have just completely disenfranchised the very kids you set out to help.

It is possible that those four board members from districts that feed Modesto’s high schools but not the elementary schools could care less about Modesto’s K-8 students than they do about the high school students.

It could be that most of the voters in their respective trustee areas not only don’t care what happens in Modesto’s elementary schools, they will often find themselves in competition with those schools for resources.

For example, imagine it’s budget time. There are a few dollars available for either eighth-grade camp or high school athletics. How do you think that vote is going to turn out? It’ll be a 4-3 vote for athletics.

Before we give the MCS board a blank check on this matter, we need a lot more information and a clear view of what’s planned. Contrary to my long-held opinion and fundamental opposition to city government meddling in school district matters, the city charter is right in protecting against the outcome I have described.

The Modesto City Council acted too hastily in placing Measure F on the ballot. There was no discussion about why the provision is there in the first place. Now that we have a few months to look at this more carefully, let’s not compound the mistake by approving it before the MCS board clarifies its intentions in detail.

This is a much more complicated problem than most of us realized. We are fundamentally different from single-boundary districts. To follow a model of governance that does not fit our situation will do more damage than good. This situation will require some creative “out of the box” thinking.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Not so F-ast, Modesto City Schools."