[0:01] Good evening.
[0:02] I'd like to call this meeting to order.
[0:04] Uh, please join me to, for the Pledge of Allegiance,
[0:10] Pledge of Alle Allegiance to the black
[0:12] of the United States of America,
[0:14] and to the republic for which it stands,
[0:17] one Nation under God, indivisible,
[0:20] with liberty and justice for.
[0:27] All right. Are there any changes to the agenda?
[0:30] Uh, staff recommends no changes to the agenda.
[0:33] Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved.
[0:36] Is there a second?
[0:38] Second. And Ms. Wong, do you support the motion?
[0:42] I do. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
[0:45] All those opposed. Motion passes. Five zero.
[0:51] Okay. Moving on to item number two,
[0:54] public hearing. Is it okay if we start?
[0:59] I think it's okay. 'cause much of it is introduction.
[1:01] Okay. I'll speak slowly.
[1:05] The governing board will convene a second public hearing
[1:08] to receive public testimony concerning,
[1:10] concerning the composition
[1:12] of potential trustee voting areas associated
[1:15] with the district's transition to
[1:17] by trustee area election system.
[1:19] This hearing is in advance of the preparation
[1:21] of draft trustee voting area plans
[1:24] or maps by the district's demographer under California
[1:27] elections code section ten one zero zero one zero.
[1:31] The board must hold at least two public hearings over a
[1:34] period of no more than 30 days at which the public is
[1:37] invited to provide input regarding the composition
[1:41] of potential trustee voting areas
[1:43] before the district's demographer draws draft maps
[1:46] of the proposed trustee boundaries of the district
[1:50] as part of the public hearing.
[1:51] Members of the public may submit comments on the
[1:54] establishment of the voting area, boundaries
[1:56] for the new trustee voting areas that will be established
[1:59] as part of the district's transition from an at large
[2:03] election system to a by trustee area.
[2:05] Election system. Uh, speakers will be given three minutes
[2:10] to make comments on this matter
[2:12] and this matter only
[2:13] to address the board in this public hearing.
[2:16] Complete a addressed, uh, request
[2:19] to address the Alani Union High School District governing
[2:22] board card and submit it to the secretary of the Board
[2:25] before we begin to the public comment,
[2:28] which will be following a presentation
[2:30] by the district's legal counsel
[2:32] and demographer, we will now convene a public hearing.
[2:37] The public hearing is open.
[2:42] Okay. So, um, as President Chen mentioned,
[2:46] this is our second public hearing
[2:48] and, uh, for this, uh, meeting, both our
[2:53] legal counsel as well as the demographer will be, uh,
[2:57] participating by Zoom.
[2:59] And so I'm going to move that over.
[3:03] And, uh, I would like to introduce our
[3:08] attorney, Jonathan Salt of F three Law Firm,
[3:13] and he is joined by the demographer David Lopez
[3:17] of Western Schools Strategic Consulting, uh,
[3:21] WSSC.
[3:22] And so the two of them will take us through a, uh,
[3:26] presentation and, um,
[3:29] and are certainly available to answer questions.
[3:32] So, Jonathan, it's all yours.
[3:34] Thanks, John. Can you hear me okay?
[3:36] Yes. Perfect.
[3:38] Um, good evening, district board members
[3:41] of the staff and community.
[3:42] I'm Jonathan Salt with Ethically Law, joined
[3:44] by our demographer, uh, David Lopez.
[3:47] Um, this is our second pre-AP public hearing.
[3:50] Um, the next time you see David
[3:52] or I, they'll have been MAs, uh, created by David
[3:55] and posted online, um, for review.
[3:57] So, uh, we're moving along here through the process.
[4:00] Um, uh, a bit of background to kind
[4:02] of help lead the public hearing.
[4:04] Um, why
[4:09] is this transition happening?
[4:10] Um, so the California Voting Rights Act,
[4:13] or CBRA says
[4:15] that if you have at large elections like the district does,
[4:18] and that those elections potentially impair the ability
[4:22] of protected classes from electing candidates of choice,
[4:26] or, um, having the ability to influence the outcome
[4:29] of an election, that at large system might violate CVRA,
[4:34] um, a protected class just
[4:36] 'cause it's in the definition of CVRA is a class of voters
[4:39] who are members of a race, color,
[4:41] or language minority group.
[4:43] Um, another thing that is
[4:46] commonly discussed in CVRA is racially polarized voting,
[4:48] essentially, when a, um, group of voters in the district
[4:53] of a protected class tends to prefer, uh, one candidate, um,
[4:57] but the rest of the electorate tends to prefer another
[4:59] that's racially polarized voting.
[5:01] Um, the reason CVRA is popping up here
[5:04] and around the state is
[5:05] because unlike the Federal Voter Rights Act,
[5:08] intent is not required.
[5:09] So the district or a city
[5:11] or a water district, by having at large elections,
[5:15] it need not intend, um, to, you know,
[5:19] be potentially discriminating against protected classes in
[5:22] order to be found in violation of the statute.
[5:24] So it's very easy for a prospective plaintiff
[5:27] to bring a claim against a public entity.
[5:31] Another reason why this is popping up is
[5:33] because when those claims are made, um,
[5:36] the prevailing plaintiff is entitled
[5:37] to recover attorney's fees and expert fees.
[5:40] But if a public entity, like a school district
[5:42] or a city were to successfully defend at large elections,
[5:45] then not afford that same, right.
[5:48] Um, so the only safe harbor to, uh, is
[5:51] to transition from at large to trustee area
[5:54] or by trustee area
[5:56] or district based, um, elections
[5:59] where the district will be divided here
[6:01] because you have five trustees into five roughly
[6:04] equal population areas.
[6:06] And, um, board members in the future will be elected, um,
[6:09] one per area only by the voters who live in that same area.
[6:13] And this doesn't impact anybody's current term.
[6:16] You'll all serve out the remaining, uh, one-ish
[6:20] or three-ish years of your current terms, uh,
[6:23] but prospectively, um,
[6:25] each trustee area will have an election on the
[6:27] same through two cycle.
[6:29] Um, so where we are now, the current step of our process
[6:32] is these two pre-AP public hearings, uh,
[6:35] to solicit feedback from the board
[6:36] and community about, um, potential trustee areas
[6:40] or the kinds of things that we should be thinking about
[6:43] as we draw the, the maps, which cannot be done until
[6:45] after this second public hearing.
[6:48] I'm gonna hand it off to David to talk a little bit about
[6:50] the district's demographics.
[6:52] We will work back through, um, kind of some more information
[6:56] and I'll also share with the board, uh, a few emails
[6:59] that the district received on its, um, CVRA email address
[7:03] and kind of summarize the input received to date.
[7:05] David.
[7:07] Great. Thank you, Jonathan.
[7:08] Uh, I assume everyone can hear me. Okay.
[7:12] So this table here again represents the
[7:16] population within the district that responded
[7:18] to the 2020 census.
[7:20] And as you can see within the district's boundaries, a total
[7:22] of 119,039 people responded,
[7:26] that'll be the total population that we first
[7:30] and foremost have to use as we create five trustee areas
[7:34] with each being, um, roughly equal in size to that.
[7:39] So, uh, you take that number divided by five,
[7:42] and you can have a slight variation,
[7:44] which counsel can tell you in more detail up to 10%
[7:47] from one to another.
[7:49] But this is the primary basis
[7:51] for creating them based on population.
[7:54] The table. Uh, the column
[7:55] to the right age 18 plus doesn't have a bearing on this
[7:58] process, but we, we include as just kind
[8:01] of an informative slide.
[8:02] So the key takeaway is
[8:04] that everything within your boundaries that we're using
[8:06] as a number from the 2020 census has to do
[8:08] with 119,000 people.
[8:14] And so with that, you know, there's going to,
[8:16] each area's gonna have about 23,800 people.
[8:20] Um, you know, with a variance of a kind of a gap
[8:23] that's allowed of a little shy of 2,400 total.
[8:26] So you might have some areas maybe have 24,000 or,
[8:29] or 25,000, some with maybe 23, 22.
[8:32] It just sort of depends,
[8:34] but, um, it's very rarely gonna be perfectly accurate.
[8:37] Um, and it's also important to note
[8:39] that census blocks can vary in size and shape
[8:42] and population totals.
[8:43] Um, and so you can have a very large census blocks.
[8:45] You can have tiny census blocks.
[8:47] They can have zero people,
[8:48] they can have thousands of people.
[8:50] Um, but we sort of use them as the Lego pieces
[8:52] for building the trustee area maps,
[8:54] because when we do that, we understand exactly
[8:58] how many people based on the census live in each area.
[9:01] If we were to divide them up
[9:02] or split them in some way, regardless of their shape,
[9:05] we'd lose the accuracy of our population count.
[9:08] Um, David, how many census blocks are in the district's?
[9:11] Uh, boundaries overall?
[9:13] Uh, I believe there's 1,090,
[9:16] but of those only 810 have population.
[9:20] And the census does this a lot by creating census blocks
[9:23] around freeways or roadways.
[9:25] So it's quite typical that there's many
[9:27] that don't have population.
[9:28] But, uh, those with population in it that are gonna be, uh,
[9:34] key to this process there, there's 810,
[9:39] and that said, this same table
[9:42] to the right is gonna be the same for each
[9:44] of the next three slides.
[9:45] We looked at your, uh, your top three protected classes
[9:50] by population, and this is called citizen voting Age
[9:53] Population Estimates.
[9:54] This is provided by the American Community Survey,
[9:58] which is a division of the census.
[10:00] Uh, they take, uh, you know, monthly surveys, phone calls,
[10:04] a lot of information that they get on a more current basis
[10:08] to create what's called citizen voting Age Population
[10:11] estimates, or CBAP data as it's known in the industry.
[10:15] And this will be the primary number here
[10:17] in these categories.
[10:19] Uh, and ensuring that we're, uh,
[10:24] taking into account all the protected
[10:25] classes and their distribution.
[10:27] The maps provided for each
[10:29] of these in this example is Hispanic.
[10:31] It just shows a, a kind of a, a color shading
[10:35] to give you an idea of the distribution.
[10:37] It doesn't have so much the density.
[10:39] Uh, some of these really, really dark ones that show 80%
[10:43] or more might only be one or two people.
[10:45] Uh, so by CVAP, that would mean that there'd be
[10:52] one or two Hispanics as a portion
[10:54] of the total CVAP population for these blocks.
[10:56] So they're helpful in,
[10:58] in giving you an idea of the distribution.
[11:00] They're not helpful if you're trying
[11:01] to narrow down precise numbers
[11:03] and say, well then obviously the map's gonna be drawn this
[11:06] way because it doesn't take into account total count
[11:08] for each of the census blocks.
[11:09] It just gives us an idea
[11:11] and an overview to the community of where these, uh,
[11:14] these shaded blocks lie.
[11:16] And this one is for Hispanic in your district,
[11:19] they comprise 8.3%
[11:20] of the overall citizen voting age population.
[11:23] David, I wanna stay on the slide for a second just
[11:25] because, so all of these kind of,
[11:27] the ies all over the map here,
[11:28] these are all census blocks, right?
[11:30] Um, and, and so correct.
[11:32] You've got kind of large ones here along the western edge
[11:34] of the district, and then really tiny ones, uh, you know,
[11:37] in Walnut Creek, some shaded, some not,
[11:39] but just kind of what I was saying
[11:40] before, you know,
[11:41] you might have a giant census block out here
[11:43] with, you know, weird shapes.
[11:45] It's just like an upside down kind
[11:46] of Texas to me here in the bottom.
[11:47] I dunno if you can see my mouse.
[11:49] Um, but there might not be many people living there
[11:51] with when there might be thousands
[11:52] in one of the ones over here.
[11:53] So just, um, this is sort of, kind of what David has to use
[11:57] to piece together the trustee areas.
[11:59] Um, but again, just because the color is particularly dark
[12:01] doesn't mean there's a lot of people there.
[12:08] And this is the same table distribution map of those
[12:12] who identified themselves
[12:14] with the census from the census is Asian.
[12:16] Uh, to give you an example, um, Jonathan,
[12:19] if you can highlight the darkest one right under Mayor Monte
[12:23] High School, um, you know, this is helpful for showing
[12:28] the distribution, but in that dark census block,
[12:31] which has 80%
[12:32] or more Asian CVAP, there's only five people there
[12:38] out of probably six or seven.
[12:41] So the 80%
[12:43] or greater Asian is where that number comes into play.
[12:45] If you go to the next shaded one, the big, big piece
[12:49] above it, that's kind of a different color blue
[12:52] that shows 40 to 60% Asian by citizen voting age.
[12:56] And that would be 349 Asians, which means another 40
[13:01] to 60% are not Asian.
[13:04] And that'll give you kind of an idea of the size of
[13:06] that census block.
[13:07] So this is very helpful in seeing the distribution
[13:11] and understanding why maps are drawn a certain way,
[13:13] but they don't, you can't list a number
[13:17] of count on every tiny census block.
[13:19] It wouldn't really populate the map,
[13:21] but I wanted to share that with you so that you get an idea
[13:24] of, you know, the maps are gonna be drawn
[13:27] with these considerations.
[13:28] But the population
[13:29] and the citizen voting age population estimates
[13:32] are primary drivers here, along with
[13:34] what the community says, or communities of interest
[13:36] or natural boundaries.
[13:38] And, um, you know, there's a lot
[13:40] of factors that go into this.
[13:42] I know sometimes people want, uh, languages,
[13:45] they want income, they want cities,
[13:48] they want all kinds of things.
[13:50] And, and the, the mandates that we follow, um, as part
[13:54] of this process and council can elaborate on, um,
[13:57] are very detailed and we have to follow them.
[13:59] And sometimes it's not possible to
[14:01] achieve all the different shapes and sizes
[14:04] and things that people want.
[14:05] But when we create the maps, I wanted you all understand
[14:09] that these are the factors that go into it.
[14:10] These are the main components.
[14:12] Um, but there'll be other, uh, factors that
[14:16] we get from comm from feedback like this
[14:18] and other factors that we're limited to when it comes
[14:20] to numbers and, and population distributions.
[14:25] And this, of course, is your, your third largest, uh,
[14:28] demographic group that's a protected class,
[14:31] black citizen voting age population estimates.
[14:34] Um, there's a small percentage in your district of,
[14:37] of 1,545 according to the American Community Survey.
[14:41] Um, and you can see that a lot of that is spread from,
[14:44] from Loma, uh, Los Lomas High School up in the,
[14:47] to the Walnut Creek area.
[14:50] And so the, the purpose of this public hearing in the one,
[14:53] two weeks ago is to get feedback from the board
[14:56] and the community for
[14:57] how trustee area boundaries should be drawn.
[14:59] And, and to be clear, um, while we're soliciting
[15:02] as much feedback as possible now
[15:04] once draft maps are available, which will be
[15:07] by next Wednesday, 'cause that's gonna be the deadline
[15:10] with the following public hearing being September 3rd,
[15:13] those, the maps that David draws initially don't have
[15:16] to be one of the maps the board adopts.
[15:18] It can also be a starting point.
[15:20] And I often find that feedback
[15:22] after maps are drawn potentially can be really helpful.
[15:25] And, oh, now that I see what this looks like,
[15:28] I know I like this, but can we do this or that?
[15:30] Yes, changes can be made once the maps come out
[15:32] and new maps can be created from that.
[15:34] So just keep that in mind.
[15:35] But here, kind of for the initial round of maps,
[15:38] we wanna know how youth all think the trustee
[15:40] area boundary line should be drawn.
[15:42] Um, so for example, you know, what we're hoping for is,
[15:46] you know, I think neighborhood X
[15:47] and neighborhood Y should be in the same area because,
[15:50] or I think such and such is a really good boundary.
[15:53] I think that would be a good boundary, right?
[15:54] That's kind of what we're looking for.
[15:55] So on the next slide are just random, um,
[16:00] identifiable features in your community
[16:02] that I've thrown on here.
[16:03] This doesn't mean anything for the maps.
[16:05] This is just by way of trying to solicit feedback.
[16:07] So, you know, I think Highway 24 makes sense as a boundary
[16:11] because it seems like a natural boundary
[16:13] or I think the reservoir area makes sense, um,
[16:16] because it makes sense geographically.
[16:17] That kind of feedback is what we're looking for tonight.
[16:20] Um, and so kind of again, where we are in this process is
[16:25] after tonight second pre-AP public hearing,
[16:27] David will draw draft trustee area plans based on
[16:31] a variety of factors.
[16:32] Um, comply with the constitution, US
[16:36] and California population.
[16:37] Balance is the number one factor.
[16:40] Um, again, about 23,800 people per trustee area.
[16:44] The reason why you can't put a hundred thousand people in
[16:46] one area and then 5,000 in another is
[16:49] because you dilute the voting power
[16:51] of folks in those areas, right?
[16:52] If, if there's a hundred thousand people in one area
[16:55] and five in another, your vote is way more powerful if you
[16:57] live in the 5,000 person area.
[16:59] So kind of one person in one vote, uh, is the standard,
[17:02] uh, in the United States.
[17:04] And so that's kind of why we redistrict every 10 years
[17:06] for Congress and other seats, uh,
[17:09] same kind of rules apply here.
[17:10] So balanced population.
[17:12] Then we look at the Federal Voting Rights Act.
[17:14] Is it possible to create a majority area made up
[17:18] of protected class, um, groupings?
[17:21] Now here we know that any one grouping, we've done
[17:24] that analysis, it's not possible.
[17:26] We were asked at the last name to see if it was possible
[17:28] to draw kind of a conglomerate grouping of can,
[17:31] can we take all of the protected classes?
[17:33] Is there a way to make a, um, majority area
[17:36] of a combined protected class group?
[17:38] I'm not so sure it's possible.
[17:40] David will look into that when he draws the maps.
[17:42] But that's kind of the next feature.
[17:44] That's what we look at when we look at that C VAP data,
[17:46] those charts that we just looked at a few slides ago.
[17:50] Then, um, there's a ranked order
[17:52] of priority that we have to consider.
[17:54] So first we have to balance the population.
[17:55] We have to look at the C VAP data for protected classes.
[17:58] Then we have to make sure the maps are contiguous.
[18:00] Meaning you can't start a trustee area, say in Orinda,
[18:04] stop it, and then start it up again in Walnut Creek
[18:06] and then say that that's both the same trustee area.
[18:09] It has to be connected.
[18:10] Um, then we look at local neighborhoods
[18:12] and communities of interest, cities
[18:14] or census designated places,
[18:16] natural artificial boundaries and compactness.
[18:19] Um, it's important to note that the maps cannot
[18:22] and will not be drawn for the purposes of favoring
[18:25] or discriminating against any incumbent
[18:27] political candidate or political party.
[18:29] David will never know where any of the trustees live.
[18:32] Um, he's just drawing it based on the criteria
[18:34] that we've been walking through here.
[18:36] Um, because ultimately these maps are gonna be the maps
[18:39] for the district, regardless
[18:40] of who's on the board moving forwards.
[18:44] Um, just so you can see where your cities
[18:47] and census designated places are
[18:49] in the high school attendance areas.
[18:51] Um, this map here shows that, um,
[18:53] David added in rossmore since the last meeting.
[18:56] 'cause I know that that came up a little bit.
[18:57] So, um, just kind of showing where it is on the map.
[19:01] Um, we've also added a couple of other slides
[19:03] that I'll connect to now.
[19:04] So the blue lines here are your attendance
[19:07] areas for your high schools.
[19:09] Um, the different colors are different cities
[19:11] or census designated places.
[19:14] We've now taken off the high school attendance areas
[19:17] and are just looking at your partner districts, um,
[19:19] and show where those boundaries are, again, still
[19:22] with the city, uh, and CDP colors there.
[19:25] And then even further where the school site boundaries are
[19:29] for the elementary district.
[19:30] Um, 'cause we understand those may be
[19:32] considered a community of interest.
[19:34] Again, you know, lower on the list than total
[19:36] population and some other factors.
[19:37] But it's something that you, you wanted to see
[19:39] and that we wanted to look at.
[19:41] So to the extent where we may have to draw a line somewhere,
[19:44] we can look to this, which again, these might not line up
[19:47] with census blocks, but we can look to them to generally try
[19:50] to keep some of the communities together to the extent
[19:52] that we're coming up on, on boundaries, um,
[19:55] for various, um, sites.
[19:56] So, um, what is the community of interest?
[19:59] It's a very detailed definition. Uh, it's very amorphous.
[20:02] It's sort of whatever you think it should be, as long
[20:05] as it's not based on political, uh, considerations.
[20:08] So a community of interest is a population
[20:11] that shares common social and economic interests.
[20:13] Um, that's very broad.
[20:15] The statute gives some more specifics of suggestions of
[20:18] what might be a community of interest.
[20:20] Um, but the only thing that's certain is what's not
[20:24] relationship to a political party.
[20:26] Incumbents and political candidates,
[20:27] those are not factored into communities of interest.
[20:31] Um, some final thoughts here in the presentation
[20:34] in the next couple weeks, there's gonna be lots
[20:36] of maps out there on, on your website
[20:38] and, and talked about online.
[20:40] And just know that this does not change
[20:42] where anybody goes to school.
[20:43] This doesn't change the district's boundaries overall.
[20:46] It doesn't even change how the board is governed.
[20:48] It's, you know, every board member still owes the duties
[20:50] of the entire district.
[20:51] It's still one district with common goals and challenges.
[20:55] Um, as fast as this is, we're kind
[20:57] of at the halfway point now.
[20:58] Um, after tonight's meeting,
[21:00] the demographer's gonna prepare maps.
[21:01] There'll be out by August 27th.
[21:03] We'll have three map public hearings on October 15th
[21:07] following the last public hearing.
[21:09] The board will vote to adopt one of the map options, um,
[21:13] on the district's website, under the board tab,
[21:15] there is a transition to trustee areas page.
[21:18] It takes you here and it has the schedule, has information,
[21:21] has a flyer, has all the presentations,
[21:24] and eventually shortly we'll have the
[21:26] maps, uh, in about a week.
[21:28] Um, and so it's just a kind of a home base for
[21:30] where all the information can be found.
[21:32] Um, so with that, I will unshare my screen, um,
[21:36] and stand by for either questions
[21:37] and comments from the board or, uh,
[21:40] listen to public comment.
[21:41] Maybe I'll just maybe go back to this slide
[21:44] and kind of leave this up, um, for that.
[21:46] So thank you.
[21:49] Thank you so much for all that information.
[21:52] Um, right now I'd just like
[21:54] to see if the board has clarifying questions.
[22:01] Okay. Um, so we also wanna hear from the public
[22:06] and we've received, um, cards from two pe two people
[22:10] who wish to address the subject during the hearing.
[22:13] Um, you'll each have up to three minutes
[22:16] to address the board,
[22:24] and that's it. So,
[22:26] Um, and President Chen, I just was notified that the,
[22:29] this was not streaming,
[22:31] so we're trying to make some adjustments.
[22:32] Okay. We, we will have audio recording.
[22:35] Um, but unfortunately Okay,
[22:39] Do you need a, I'm five figure out, I'm trying recess
[22:42] to figure it out, or,
[22:43] Um, yeah, why don't we take a,
[22:48] a quick recess.
[22:50] Uh, David and Jonathan, we're gonna take like a,
[22:53] just a three minute recess,
[22:54] see if we can get the streaming functioning,
[22:56] um, of the video.
[22:58] That sounds good. I also forgot to share the,
[23:01] the public input that you've received via email.
[23:03] And so maybe either right after the, the two public comments
[23:06] or right before whenever Board President Chen thinks makes
[23:09] sense for me to kind of give a summary
[23:11] of those comments whenever you all prefer.
[23:15] Okay. Yeah. So let's take a five minute recess. Okay.
[23:19] Nick, do you see,
[23:29] So I just apologize, we're not able
[23:31] to get the streaming up,
[23:32] but the, the, um, audio recording will be, um, going
[23:36] and we'll be posted.
[23:38] Um, so at this time I'd like to do, oh, wait, um,
[23:41] let's have, if Jonathan yeah,
[23:47] wants to talk about the feedback we've gotten so far,
[23:50] and then we can do the public comments.
[23:53] Yeah. Can you hear
[23:57] Me? Yeah.
[23:58] Okay. So, um, at the, the email address that was created,
[24:02] um, I think it's like trustee area feedback at a u
[24:06] hsd schools.org.
[24:08] Um, the districts received about eight, um,
[24:11] messages since the last meeting.
[24:12] Some of them came in today.
[24:14] Um, some of 'em are quite lengthy, so I'm just,
[24:16] I did my best to summarize sort of the,
[24:18] the key points from them.
[24:20] So, um, there were two, uh, of the eight, uh, uh,
[24:24] mentioned you were focused on Rossmore
[24:27] and indicated that they did not wanna see Rossmore split up,
[24:30] um, specifically, um, you know, don't split up based on age.
[24:34] And another comment related to that was
[24:36] that they think rossmore is a community of interest, um,
[24:39] that should be kept together.
[24:40] And that there's many A-U-H-S-C
[24:42] grandparents that live there.
[24:44] Um, there's again, a lot of, a lot of comments
[24:48] and feedback, so I'm just gonna
[24:49] share them kind of one at a time.
[24:50] So, uh, one thought was not
[24:53] to use attendance areas as boundary lines.
[24:55] 'cause that might create silos for decision making.
[24:57] I think that's something we talked about last time.
[24:59] Um, someone said
[25:00] that overall the whole district is a community of interest.
[25:03] Um, others suggested crossing across school boundaries.
[25:07] So that there is sort of a, a kind of a pull to multiple,
[25:10] uh, schools that to kinda keep everybody honest, um,
[25:14] one person suggested putting all the underrepresented groups
[25:17] together, kind of like what I believe
[25:19] for President Chen mentioned last time, which is,
[25:21] is it possible to create, you know, an area that is
[25:24] majority protected class, but maybe not one?
[25:27] Um, again, not sure that that's possible,
[25:28] but it is a, a suggestion that was thrown out here
[25:31] specifically, the person mentioned the northeastern part
[25:34] of the district, like the apartments
[25:35] and condos that are near the bart.
[25:37] Um, and, and around kind of North Maine.
[25:40] Um, someone else's suggestion was,
[25:42] and again, some of these are in the same email,
[25:44] but to empower historically underrepresented populations,
[25:48] maybe look at income level or where students are.
[25:50] Um, someone suggested that neighborhoods, uh,
[25:54] elementary attendance zones and language communities,
[25:56] and they specifically named Park Mead Happy Valley,
[26:00] and the, uh, specifically the Buena Vista
[26:02] and downtown Walnut Creek neighborhood, that they identified
[26:05] that as diverse and that maybe the Buena Vista,
[26:08] downtown Walnut Creek area could be tied
[26:10] to the Spring Hill Elementary area,
[26:11] and that, that might make sense to this person.
[26:14] Um, then there's, uh, a series of emails that will receive
[26:17] that have, um, some kind of bulleted pointed ideas.
[26:20] Um, and to be clear, I think they're all good ideas.
[26:23] I'm just not sure how practical they are to, to actually,
[26:26] um, show up on the map.
[26:28] So, for example, um, you know, people who are community
[26:31] of interest who voted in support of school bonds
[26:34] or partial taxes, but also people who support visual
[26:37] and performing arts support diversity in our schools support
[26:41] social justice, um, support services for LGBTQ plus youth,
[26:46] um, support, uh, immigrant rights support,
[26:48] neurodiversity awareness.
[26:49] Again, there are probably people for thousands
[26:52] that exist in the district.
[26:53] It's really hard to say where they,
[26:55] if they live in a concentrated area or not.
[26:57] Um, but nevertheless,
[26:58] these are these suggestions that were shared.
[27:00] And so I wanted to make sure the board heard them
[27:02] because we did say that, you know,
[27:04] these email comments are just
[27:05] as good as coming to the board meeting.
[27:06] So I wanna make sure that the points got across
[27:08] to the board and the demographer
[27:14] Just to share.
[27:15] I believe the comment was Spring Hill
[27:18] and Buena Vista might not be a good combination.
[27:24] That's how I remembered it too.
[27:27] There you go. Okay, then thank you for, for,
[27:29] for reading it better than I did.
[27:31] I, I think the way I read it was
[27:38] One of the comments said, I'm sorry.
[27:40] So first, for example, the Buena Vista,
[27:43] this is why I wrote this, said this, and maybe I misread it,
[27:45] but for example, the Buena Vista Downtown Walnut Creek
[27:48] neighborhood is highly diverse
[27:49] and has multiple renters, multiple languages spoken.
[27:52] If this repaired with another school community in a
[27:54] different zone, the contiguous set would likely be the area
[27:56] around Spring Hill.
[27:58] These neighborhoods are contiguous and satisfy the words.
[28:01] Oh, there you go. You are right.
[28:02] But it would d delete the power. There you go. Right.
[28:03] So, um, yeah, so don't do that. Uh, is is the suggestions.
[28:08] Don't, don't tie Spring Hill
[28:09] to Buena Vista and Walnut Creek.
[28:15] Okay. Thank you for the clarification.
[28:20] All right. So, um, at this time I'd like to pivot
[28:23] to public comment and invite OG Straus guest to the podium.
[28:28] And you just push a little button
[28:29] for the red light to come on.
[28:36] There you go.
[28:38] Good evening. I'm OG Strotz. I live in Walnut Creek.
[28:43] Our son attended Buena Vista Elementary,
[28:45] Walnut Creek Intermediate and Las Lomas.
[28:48] Uh, so I wanna echo previous public
[28:50] comments that have been expressed.
[28:52] Uh, I feel it's crucial
[28:53] that our district's socioeconomic diversity as well
[28:56] as our racial and ethnic diversity
[28:59] are reflected in the drawing of trustee areas so
[29:02] that historically marginalized voices are heard
[29:05] in district decision making.
[29:07] Thank you.
[29:10] Thank you. Uh, next, Denise Buran.
[29:20] Denise Burien. I live in Willow Creek and thank you Ji.
[29:23] I couldn't have said it better myself,
[29:25] although I did try in my email.
[29:27] Um, so I think my email was represented, uh, in the comments
[29:31] that were made by, uh, Mr.
[29:34] Salt, if I got that right.
[29:37] And, um, but I just have, I have a couple of things I,
[29:40] I understand we can't really ask questions,
[29:42] but I do have a couple of, I think an additional comments.
[29:46] And I, since it's obvious that you guys are,
[29:48] are reading our comments, um, I'm wondering what,
[29:51] when we see the maps, whether we're gonna be able to see,
[29:55] see the, uh, see the reflection of some
[29:58] of the questions we've asked in those maps.
[30:02] So you're gonna cut in the next meeting.
[30:03] You're gonna come up with these sample maps.
[30:05] I don't know how many you're gonna come up with,
[30:06] but We'll, when you do the presentation, we'll be able
[30:09] to see where's the ethnic diversity, where's the income?
[30:12] I'm really, you know, I, I agree with, with OG that we need
[30:15] to have, um, uh, income that, you know,
[30:19] that the people in lower incomes, while
[30:22] that is still relative to other low income areas
[30:25] for our district, um, if there is a low income area, that
[30:29] that would be a very unique
[30:30] and they would definitely be a community of interest.
[30:33] Um, so I'm wondering if that will be reflected in the map
[30:37] so we can sort of see that as they go through
[30:39] and say why they, why you put,
[30:41] I'm looking at the people up here, why, why you, uh,
[30:44] why you put, made that map the way that you did.
[30:46] So I'm hoping that can be met.
[30:49] And, um, I do like
[30:54] the idea of putting as many of the, um,
[30:58] minority protected classes that show them
[31:00] in, in one district.
[31:01] I mean, I realize they're not gonna all be in,
[31:03] they're not all there 'cause they're scattered about.
[31:06] But, um, I think that there are some areas
[31:07] that could accomplish that.
[31:09] And, um, I also want to say
[31:13] that I would like the idea of the fact
[31:16] that you guys assign each other to different schools.
[31:19] I dunno if you do it by year or when you do it,
[31:21] but, um, that's a great idea.
[31:25] So if somebody is living in that district, not give them
[31:28] that school to be responsible for.
[31:31] I, I guess that's what I'm trying to say anyway.
[31:34] So thank you for the,
[31:35] how thoroughly you're looking into this,
[31:37] and I look forward to seeing the sample maps. Thanks.
[31:41] Thank you. Uh, next, Nathan Iyengar.
[31:54] Um, hello, uh, my name's Nathan Angar.
[31:57] I am a parent of a ninth grader at Las Lomas
[32:01] and former Walnut Creek School board member.
[32:04] Um, first off, thank you all for this.
[32:06] Um, I appreciate in the last meeting there are no easy
[32:09] answers and this is an incredibly difficult topic.
[32:12] Um, everyone may say, oh, it's easy to draw a map,
[32:15] and it's incredibly difficult.
[32:17] So thank you for your effort
[32:19] and intentionality in this process.
[32:21] Um, I just share three things, um, that are kind
[32:25] of principles that I've been thinking about.
[32:26] First is, as much as possible,
[32:29] please prioritize keeping the following
[32:31] communities of interest together.
[32:34] Um, elementary school zones, multilingual families,
[32:37] racial groups, income status,
[32:39] and residents who have historically
[32:40] supported public education.
[32:42] Um, I get that some of these are quite difficult to measure
[32:46] and would just offer, um,
[32:48] if there's data on home language spoken, um, renter status
[32:51] or even patterns of past civic engagement by how people, um,
[32:56] the percentage of people who voted in parcel tax
[32:59] or bond, um, support.
[33:01] Um, second, appreciate the notion of trying to have, uh,
[33:07] districts or vote trustee area span multiple, um,
[33:10] high schools, multiple high school attendance areas.
[33:13] I would just wanna make sure that's done with cautions so
[33:15] as not to dilute, um,
[33:19] historically underrepresented groups
[33:20] that may be in one neighborhood then are
[33:22] paired with another neighborhood.
[33:24] Um, and so in practice, just making sure
[33:27] that the new maps give all communities a real ability
[33:30] to represent a, have a representative
[33:32] who is proximate to their needs.
[33:35] And then finally, um, understand that the data used
[33:39] to inform this is from the 2020 census.
[33:43] A lot has changed since the 2020 census,
[33:45] and a lot will change in the coming years.
[33:47] And so, as much as possible, not only looking at
[33:50] where data is today,
[33:52] but forecasting how things might change,
[33:54] what areas might grow, what areas might decline, I'm sure
[33:57] that this board or future boards would not want
[34:00] to do this process over again.
[34:01] And so, as much as possible, having this be something
[34:04] that can last for multiple years.
[34:06] Um, and then finally, would just please continue to ensure
[34:09] that public engagement, um,
[34:12] is truly accessible for this process.
[34:14] Um, from conversations with multiple families.
[34:17] There are many families who are really in the dark on what's
[34:20] happening here, and would just wanna make sure that as much
[34:23] as possible, especially as we get into maps,
[34:25] families are aware of what's happening
[34:27] and can have space to comment.
[34:29] Um, again, thank you for your service.
[34:31] Thank you for what you're doing.
[34:32] And I think we all share that. Done well.
[34:35] This process can really center families,
[34:37] elevate those voices least heard,
[34:39] and ultimately strengthen democratic
[34:41] representation in the district. Thank you all.
[34:43] Thank you. And I'd like to invite Samantha, Fran.
[35:02] Hi, uh, president Chen, uh, superintendent Nickerson
[35:05] and governing board.
[35:07] Thank you so much. Um, I, uh, wanna echo
[35:10] what has been said tonight in terms of considering, um,
[35:14] communities of interest.
[35:16] I was, uh, able to listen to most of the last meeting,
[35:20] and I appreciate that it was streamed.
[35:22] And so, um, for people out there,
[35:24] the audio version is good as well.
[35:27] And I just wanted to bring up the rossmore, um, issue.
[35:30] Uh, I'm happy the demo, uh,
[35:33] that a board member made the demographer, um, aware of it.
[35:37] Um, Rossmore is 12,007, uh,
[35:41] 117 people as of 2025.
[35:45] The census recorded it, um, in 2020
[35:48] as 11,923.
[35:51] So with a group of, of 23,000, um,
[35:56] per district, it's really important to, um, recognize
[35:59] what a big portion of a population that is.
[36:02] And I know all the school board members here have, um, been
[36:06] to rossmore because it is a large voting population, um,
[36:10] as Ms mentioned in the last meeting.
[36:13] So, um, I have faith in the board.
[36:16] I appreciate your service.
[36:18] Uh, I thank you for, uh, undertaking this service.
[36:22] And I just wanted to express, um, my appreciation, um,
[36:26] for this thoughtful process.
[36:27] And again, hope that you consider, um,
[36:31] elementary school boundaries, um,
[36:33] and neighborhoods as, uh, as a, a key part
[36:38] of community of interests.
[36:40] Um, so thanks again.
[36:42] Thank you.
[36:52] So I'd like to invite, um, the board members
[36:55] to make additional comments, ask questions,
[36:58] or submit input to Mr.
[37:00] Salt and Mr. Lopez.
[37:03] Do, do you want to have Mr.
[37:05] Salt respond to any of the kind of inquiries
[37:08] that were okay presented?
[37:10] And Jonathan, I don't know if you,
[37:13] That was what I was gonna mention
[37:14] Can respond to About the fact that every census that,
[37:19] that the, the trustee area, uh, lines,
[37:22] I believe are reviewed after every census.
[37:24] Isn't that correct?
[37:26] Yes. So, um, essentially when the 2030 census comes out,
[37:30] sometime in 2031, there'll be a window for the district,
[37:34] like every other municipality
[37:35] who has this, uh, type of system.
[37:37] Um, there's a process outlined in the election code for how
[37:40] to go about reviewing and making adjustments
[37:42] or changes to it so that you can get back into balance.
[37:45] There's, um, a bit more
[37:46] to it in 2031 than there was in 2021.
[37:49] The law changed kind of in between.
[37:51] Um, but essentially, um, this map when, when drawn
[37:56] and adopted will be good until the next census is released,
[37:59] and then there'll be a shorter
[38:01] but similar process for, um,
[38:03] having the maps be valid for, for 10 years.
[38:05] And I know that people move in and out all the time,
[38:08] and that's why the census in terms of total population,
[38:11] because we're using other data, um, with the CVAP data,
[38:15] but the census population, it's the acceptable data
[38:18] for total population because you're never gonna get on the
[38:20] nose the exact number of people on any given day, week,
[38:23] month, year, uh, between censuses.
[38:25] And so it's what is accepted, um, for congressional maps
[38:29] and other things, um, for how many people live where,
[38:32] even if it's not perfectly accurate the day
[38:34] after the census is taken.
[38:36] Um, but the citizen voting age population data
[38:38] that is on a five year rolling average from the census
[38:42] through its American Community Survey, um,
[38:44] it's a bit of a lag.
[38:45] So it's 2019 to 2023 right now.
[38:48] Um, but that is where we're getting those
[38:51] protected class percentages from
[38:52] and where those locations are.
[38:54] Um, but we, we can't just kind of go
[38:57] by the updated estimates
[38:59] because they're not accurate necessarily
[39:01] to the total population per the census.
[39:03] So if we, if we think, you know,
[39:05] that next year a 50,000 apartment complex is gonna be put
[39:10] into Orinda, we can't factor that in
[39:13] because it's gonna fill off our population balance now it'll
[39:17] be factored in in 2031.
[39:19] Um, some of the other questions on each trustee area map,
[39:22] yes, the protected class breakdown per trustee area will be,
[39:26] um, a, a part of the presentation and release on online.
[39:29] Um, not sure about income.
[39:31] I'll, I'll hand that off to David in a second,
[39:33] but some of the other comments were great.
[39:35] Um, yeah, Rossmore is gonna be 40 to 50%
[39:37] of a trustee area if the board wants
[39:39] to keep it in one trustee area.
[39:41] Um, some other suggestions that we continue to hear
[39:44] elementary school attendance areas, you know,
[39:47] to the extent possible.
[39:48] Again, they may not line up with census blocks, um,
[39:51] and they all varying populations,
[39:53] but to the extent that, um, you know, a decision has
[39:56] to be made on getting population balance,
[39:58] that might be a place to look for, you know, grouping one
[40:01] or the other with, you know,
[40:02] the neighborhood of the or west.
[40:04] Um, this real great suggestions.
[40:07] And I think that, um, you know, in the abstract, it's,
[40:10] you know, it's, it's, it's complicated
[40:12] and we're, we're, it's all hypothetical and I think that
[40:14] after, um, David's kind of first round
[40:17] of maps come out next week, uh, we can then look at that,
[40:20] figure out why they look like the way
[40:21] that they're gonna look, and then kind of work through
[40:22] what we wanna see change to it.
[40:29] Okay. Thank you.
[40:31] So I guess I would, I would add to that, Jonathan, I,
[40:34] there was a question about income or languages.
[40:39] The, the American Community Survey,
[40:41] and I haven't looked for a while,
[40:42] but they published things more routine on that.
[40:46] Um, the reason we don't include it
[40:48] as our data tables is we found over the years people get
[40:50] lost in the weeds.
[40:52] We've had situations
[40:53] where people wanna claim homeowners versus renters
[40:56] or, you know, a community of interest.
[40:59] Um, you get age, I think, information, uh,
[41:04] income, uh, with employment.
[41:08] And so it's a lot of data we have
[41:10] to sift through and, and code.
[41:11] Whereas if somebody says, Hey, we want you to take care of,
[41:14] uh, the area where one Vista Elementary serves,
[41:19] then we might likely encompass all of that
[41:22] in a map based on feedback here.
[41:25] Um, similarly languages and,
[41:27] and I'm loathed to make any kind of generalizations,
[41:30] but we've had people say in other situations, we want people
[41:34] that all speak, uh, Spanish in one area.
[41:38] And, and more often than not, that is an area
[41:41] where the citizen voting age population estimates,
[41:43] where her Hispanics are,
[41:44] and the various Asian languages as well, uh,
[41:47] often are represented by the citizen voting age population.
[41:50] Not always, and people move,
[41:53] but we could probably get, uh, languages spoken or income,
[41:58] but I wouldn't wanna derail the process
[42:00] by have people focusing on that when there's so many other,
[42:04] um, you know, priorities that we're trying to do
[42:08] to accomplish that.
[42:09] And, and if it can be achieved by feedback such
[42:12] as keep Ross Barne in one area or split it up
[42:14] or keep, you know, the area, uh,
[42:18] around Buena Vista and downtown Walnut Creek in one area,
[42:22] we would probably do that based on feedback anyway,
[42:24] without having to, um, get that additional data
[42:27] that we traditionally don't put in the back of our maps.
[42:30] We have, uh, citizen voting age, we have population,
[42:33] we have, um, accounts
[42:36] and a whole host of data signed with the maps anyway.
[42:39] So, um, if, if the board
[42:42] so wishes we can include more information,
[42:44] it could take longer.
[42:46] I don't know if we'd get it in time for this first round
[42:49] of maps, but we can certainly look into getting that if that
[42:52] is an absolute necessity that people wanna see
[42:54] or they, they feel that that's necessary
[42:56] for them to make a decision.
[43:03] All right. So members of the board, thoughts,
[43:08] questions, requests,
[43:14] Um, I'd like to request a map
[43:17] where rossmore is intact,
[43:20] but we go to the largest area we can,
[43:26] meaning adding that 10% so that you have
[43:31] a, a constituency that is not
[43:35] solely rossmore to make it a competitive, um,
[43:40] not only competitive to find candidates,
[43:43] but competitive for a candidate to be successful.
[43:47] So if we make the area with Ross more intact,
[43:51] which I think it should be, I think it needs
[43:54] to be a large area just to make sure that, um,
[43:59] we get some robust bus competition, if you will,
[44:03] within the constituents pool,
[44:06] and that either group could vote their candidate of choice
[44:11] and have the potential for being successful.
[44:14] And just to make sure that I, I'm understanding, so
[44:17] when we talk about the average being 23,808,
[44:21] but with the variance, um, essentially you, you'd like
[44:25] to see whatever map has rossmore in it, that
[44:27] that particular trustee area, um, sorry,
[44:31] whatever trustee area has ro in it, that
[44:32] that one be the most populous of that particular amount.
[44:36] Correct. So potentially I think we could go up
[44:38] to 26,000 people, um,
[44:40] within the 10% variance, or not
[44:44] Five. Yeah, it's, it's
[44:45] up 5%. Yeah.
[44:46] It's between the largest and the smallest.
[44:49] So, um, it's, it might not be up to 26,000,
[44:52] but it, it could potentially be about 25 or so,
[44:55] and the other ones would be a little bit lower than 20.
[44:58] I'd just like to see it be competitive so that I, if you,
[45:01] there are no sides in Walnut Creek,
[45:03] but if you had a Rossmore candidate
[45:06] and you had a non rossmore candidate,
[45:08] they had equal footing within the voting process,
[45:11] I guess is what I'd like to say.
[45:13] Okay. Um, and then I do support the idea
[45:18] that if one community of interest has,
[45:23] even though we're, we know we're not gonna get
[45:26] to minority majorities,
[45:28] but if they have a preponderance of a unique group,
[45:33] I wanna be really careful that we're not forcing
[45:36] that dilution by adding a group that is completely opposite.
[45:42] So I think, in my opinion, I'd like
[45:45] to see us really focus on the elementary, um,
[45:50] and the town communities
[45:52] and make multiple high schools secondary
[45:57] to representing the cont constituency of an area.
[46:02] Um, I think that it's noble to think
[46:05] that multiple high schools will help the process,
[46:10] but I think we need to focus first on the people.
[46:14] Um, and then whether it's convenient
[46:16] to add two high schools to the mix.
[46:19] I, and,
[46:22] and then I just wanna clarify that the data sets
[46:26] to be used can only come from the census,
[46:30] or can they come from other places?
[46:33] They can come from other places.
[46:35] The total population data, the, the, how do we get each area
[46:38] to be about 23,800?
[46:41] That's from the census. Mm-hmm.
[46:42] Then we look at the citizen voting age population data,
[46:45] that's the five year rolling average through the census.
[46:48] That's when we're looking at
[46:50] where are the protected classes in the district?
[46:52] Are they concentrated? Um,
[46:54] we can look at other data as well.
[46:56] It doesn't have to come from the census.
[46:58] I, I think that there was, um, one of the comments
[47:00] that I didn't, I didn't share this,
[47:02] but now that I'm just kind of rereading it all,
[47:04] someone suggested something about, you know,
[47:06] that the district kind of has its own data about, say,
[47:09] families and languages spoken at home, for example.
[47:11] That that could be helpful,
[47:13] but it also doesn't encompass the entire 119,000 people.
[47:18] And so, um, I I think it's unlikely there'll be a scenario
[47:22] where you're making a map decision based on that data, uh,
[47:25] of where a line should be drawn specifically.
[47:27] But, uh, to the extent that we, you know, can look at some
[47:30] of that stuff, we can, I think that's what David was trying
[47:32] to say about not getting too deep into the weeds,
[47:34] because at the end of the day, we're looking at about 24,000
[47:37] people per area and some of these other factors
[47:39] and where these airplane view lines can be drawn and,
[47:43] and are we really gonna make a decision of, well, okay,
[47:47] but you know, the next street has more renters,
[47:49] so let's cut the line here.
[47:50] We're probably not gonna get that deep into it,
[47:52] but if we need to, we can.
[47:55] Yeah. I think, um, everyone's just concerned
[47:58] that when you have such a low percentage
[48:01] of protected classes,
[48:03] how do you offer them any kind of protection?
[48:06] So if we're really gonna embody the essence of the law,
[48:10] how do we get as close to it as we can?
[48:16] I understand. Okay. Okay.
[48:19] I think that was my list. David,
[48:20] Are you good with that?
[48:22] Thank you. Yeah. Okay.
[48:25] Um, I think I still very strongly feel that at the end
[48:29] of the day, we're here to serve the students.
[48:31] Um, and creating any kinda silo is just goes against that.
[48:36] I remain strongly believer
[48:38] that I think whatever trustee area we create should have,
[48:42] should not just silo one high school in it.
[48:45] Um, it should cover, uh, more than one, because
[48:49] otherwise you're just creating a silo of that one school
[48:52] and that trustee has, um, you know, um, sort of, um,
[48:57] their own kind, um, incentive, whatever,
[49:02] um, that could be.
[49:04] But I just would like to really see that we, we,
[49:08] we don't kind of, um, corner ourself into that situation.
[49:13] Okay. Thank you. Um,
[49:18] basically, uh, this is not necessarily input so much as, um,
[49:22] sort of reflect reflection, looking at the sets of things.
[49:26] Um, this is, this is primarily a numeric
[49:30] distribution that needs to be geographic
[49:33] because we have to have trusty areas
[49:35] with within type population numbers,
[49:39] and the areas have to be contiguous.
[49:41] So whatever other factors we're talking about, they have
[49:46] to be driven by, by those, those sets of things.
[49:48] And while we tend to think of our areas, the various,
[49:52] you know, high schools or the various cities
[49:54] or the various schools, we also have to take recognize
[49:57] that our population is not spread in some sense
[50:02] equally across our attendance area, that a larger percentage
[50:07] of our population is in the eastern part
[50:09] than the western part.
[50:10] And so there may be some different considerations
[50:13] that you have to take into, into account because of that.
[50:17] So, you know, I think that all of the perspectives are,
[50:21] are interesting worthy to, to, to go into the process,
[50:24] but when you start to actually look at numbers,
[50:27] you're gonna, you know, start to to, to come across, um, uh,
[50:31] certain sort of truths as it were, as to, um, where some
[50:35] of the, uh, where some
[50:36] of the trustee areas will, will need to be.
[50:38] And we'll, I think all of us, we are not drawing the maps.
[50:41] We are, we're waiting to see what what will come up as well.
[50:46] Um, so I think it's, it's one of those, um, we,
[50:49] we will, I'm sure.
[50:50] Well, I mean, I know, I know from across the board, um,
[50:55] the desire is not to split anything.
[50:58] The desire is to put together things trustee areas
[51:02] by their nature split things.
[51:05] So we're, we're fighting, you know,
[51:06] that sort of a balancing battle.
[51:08] But, um, I'll refer back to something that, um,
[51:11] I think Jonathan mentioned in one of the comments that
[51:15] I do honestly believe that the most, um, important community
[51:19] of interest that there is is the entire district
[51:23] and their interest in the students.
[51:25] And if you ask across the entire district,
[51:29] why do people live here,
[51:30] the most common response is for the schools.
[51:35] And we will, whatever lines are drawn
[51:39] when somebody's elected,
[51:40] they're elected for the whole district.
[51:43] So I think we should do the best we can,
[51:46] but not sort of, you know, die on a line for it,
[51:50] because that's not really why we're here.
[51:53] We're here for the kids, and we will all be, you know,
[51:55] for the students and we will all be here
[51:56] for the students for going forward.
[51:58] So we will do the best we can.
[52:01] But, you know, I think, you know, we just all keep
[52:03] that top of mind.
[52:04] That's all.
[52:07] Okay. Thank you. Um, I have some questions
[52:12] and then I have my recommendations.
[52:14] Um, can you go through with people, how,
[52:19] how do we identify racially who's
[52:22] who in the district?
[52:32] Like how David Yeah,
[52:34] I kind, I kind of view this, oh, sorry, are you asking,
[52:36] is this question for how the district calculates
[52:39] or how, like, for example, on the slide is calculated,
[52:43] How on the slide is it calculated?
[52:45] Like is that based on self-report
[52:48] or is it based on what dataset?
[52:54] So this is a five year rolling average
[52:59] of your population based on the census data.
[53:03] And a division of the census known
[53:05] as the American Community Survey comes up
[53:08] with these estimates of citizens of voting age
[53:13] and their population.
[53:15] So it's an estimate of those 18
[53:18] and over who are citizens within each of the categories
[53:22] as defined by the census.
[53:25] And it's a five year rolling average.
[53:27] Uh, and that's why they do these five year averages
[53:30] and they release 'em kind of late every year,
[53:32] and they do, uh, mail-in surveys, phone calls,
[53:36] and they try to narrow down what the likely estimate is
[53:41] of those in this population demographic for the census
[53:45] of who's a citizen and who's a voting age.
[53:50] So this number 87,571 at the bottom
[53:56] is what they're estimating your total population is from the
[53:59] census of those 119,000 that took the census in 2020,
[54:04] um, of where they fall in each category.
[54:09] And it would be those who are citizens
[54:12] and who are of voting age.
[54:15] And so this is the number we use to ensure there's no
[54:18] disenfranchisement of protected classes or cracking
[54:21] and packing of any areas.
[54:23] Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect.
[54:25] Is it done in a professional manner
[54:28] by a division of the census?
[54:30] Yes. Uh,
[54:32] and it also takes into account, you know, the fact
[54:36] that demographics, people move,
[54:38] people come in, people leave.
[54:40] Um, so it's, it's a widely accepted, uh,
[54:45] component that the census releases
[54:47] through the American Community Survey to ensure
[54:50] that you're not, uh, disenfranchising anyone.
[54:55] Okay. So, um, and I know you didn't create this system,
[55:00] but it does sound like it automatically excludes immigrants,
[55:06] people who are not citizens
[55:10] For citizen voting age population
[55:12] that is not taken into account for, um, for
[55:17] the, uh, CVAP data,
[55:19] but it, I believe it is for the census data,
[55:22] the total population data.
[55:23] So when, when you're running the race racial, um, numbers
[55:27] for drawing the maps, is that coming from the census
[55:30] or the, the CVAP?
[55:34] It, it's both. The,
[55:35] the total population comes from the census.
[55:37] The C VAP data comes from here,
[55:39] but like, just to, to give an example, like, um,
[55:42] based on CVAP, just looking at the, um, Asian population,
[55:46] you know, 11,000 or so,
[55:47] or 12 ish percent, if we go up to the, the total population
[55:51] for the district, um, is actually 18,000 and it's 15%.
[55:56] Um, and so, um, it, again, it,
[56:00] it doesn't always correlate exactly the same.
[56:02] There's some, some variation to it.
[56:04] Um, this is more David's, uh, game than mine.
[56:07] No, but am I answering this appropriately, David,
[56:09] or am I explaining it? Yeah, the,
[56:11] The, this, this table, the census, those
[56:15] who took responded to the census in 2020, this is used
[56:19] to ensure that each area is roughly equal population wise.
[56:23] There's no concern over who's 18 or over.
[56:26] There's no questions about, um, whether they're gonna move
[56:31] or are they gonna move in the area
[56:33] and asking an adjacent neighborhoods
[56:35] outside your district if they're gonna move in your area.
[56:37] These are just the people who chose to respond to the census
[56:40] as population.
[56:42] And it's used to ensure
[56:43] that the five trustee areas are equally, uh,
[56:47] within the same number population wise,
[56:50] but the table that's a citizen voting age population
[56:53] estimate, this is the American Community Surveys attempt
[56:58] to narrow down who's a citizen from that group
[57:01] and who's a voting age population.
[57:04] So if you're 15
[57:09] and you happen to pick up the phone when they did a survey
[57:12] or respond to it, you wouldn't fall within this, uh,
[57:17] nor, uh, how they achieve, whether you're a citizen
[57:21] or not, is through their own estimations.
[57:23] I'm not entirely sure of that,
[57:24] but this number is also always different
[57:28] than the total population.
[57:30] Um, and it's, it's used
[57:32] because it's the most, uh, aggregate sum of what
[57:38] in a five year rolling average,
[57:41] what a population in any area is likely
[57:43] to be within those census blocks within your district.
[57:46] And I, I should add here on the map,
[57:49] you see the different census blocks.
[57:51] They're all different shapes and forms.
[57:53] Um, these are the smallest unit of possible,
[57:59] uh, counts by the US census.
[58:01] Sometimes the census has what's called census block groups.
[58:04] There are multiple groups of this.
[58:06] Sometimes their census tracks,
[58:08] oftentimes they cross the district's boundaries
[58:12] into another district.
[58:13] Um, and I, I believe those are used
[58:15] for like congressional districts
[58:17] or county supervisors races.
[58:19] I'm not entirely sure.
[58:21] We don't deal with those size census blocks.
[58:24] These are the smallest level of counts that the census does,
[58:28] which is highlighted in your district.
[58:30] And the census does a really nice thing
[58:32] and that they consider a school district's boundaries, uh,
[58:36] when they create these census blocks.
[58:38] So all the blocks that are counted are within
[58:40] your district boundaries.
[58:42] And this is just the,
[58:44] the data from the California statewide database
[58:46] where the citizen voting age population data comes from.
[58:49] Again, that's coming from the American Community Survey,
[58:52] which is a division of the census to try
[58:54] to narrow down the citizens
[58:56] and, uh, those of voting age population.
[59:01] Okay. Thank you.
[59:03] Um, I'm also curious, um,
[59:07] this is the part breaks my ba brain a little bit.
[59:09] If you actually did have close to majority minority
[59:12] and you put them in one trustee area, does that not
[59:17] make it, that they don't,
[59:18] they're not having a say in the other seats
[59:21] and on a board of five,
[59:22] if you only have one person representing you,
[59:25] you don't really have very much power at the table.
[59:30] Like how, how, if we were to go to the,
[59:33] you know, I agree with Ms.
[59:34] Schweppe, like that's definitely, you know,
[59:38] even if it's hard
[59:40] and aim for the intent of the law, which is
[59:43] to protect historically marginalized folks, um, how do,
[59:47] how do you do that mathematically in a way that doesn't,
[59:52] you know, like if you group here does, then you're,
[59:54] you've taken them away from another area.
[59:58] I think that that's a really good question.
[59:59] And, and I'll, I'll, I'll try to come up
[1:00:01] with an on the fly hypothetical to, to try to answer it.
[1:00:04] So, um, let's pretend that, um, just
[1:00:07] 'cause we're on the Hispanic, uh, see that page,
[1:00:09] let's pretend that this number, instead of being 8.3,
[1:00:13] let's pretend that it was 25%, okay.
[1:00:15] That 25% of the district was, um, Hispanic Latino
[1:00:20] by CBAP in a district wide election.
[1:00:23] Well, that's still a good chunk of population,
[1:00:27] but it's possible that
[1:00:28] that group should they generally vote the same way,
[1:00:31] still may not get somebody elected at large,
[1:00:34] but if they were concentrated
[1:00:36] again, I'm just gonna look here.
[1:00:38] Like, can you guys see my mouse, by the way? I can't tell.
[1:00:40] Can you see it? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Okay.
[1:00:42] So let's just say kind of where my mouse is here.
[1:00:45] I'm assuming that this is a pretty high dense
[1:00:47] population area, David?
[1:00:50] Yeah. Okay.
[1:00:51] So let's say all of this was orange, uh, red, uh,
[1:00:56] maroon, all of this was that, but districtwide it was 25%.
[1:01:01] I would bet that somewhere
[1:01:02] around here you'd have a trustee area created
[1:01:05] because there was a concentration
[1:01:07] and that even though it's 25% districtwide,
[1:01:09] it might be 52% in whatever the 23,000 total people
[1:01:14] that live over here would be.
[1:01:16] And so, yeah, it's only one area,
[1:01:19] but that gives a voice to that community
[1:01:22] that doesn't exist in the at large system
[1:01:24] because you would get out and voted in the at large system.
[1:01:27] That's why the concentrations end up being, to the extent
[1:01:31] that they exist are drawn.
[1:01:33] 'cause at large, you might get zero outta five.
[1:01:35] Now you're gonna get one of, of your choice.
[1:01:38] Okay. And then what do you do when you have a trustee area
[1:01:42] where you have, you know, like a, a general area
[1:01:45] that makes sense, but you've got, uh, maybe
[1:01:50] communities of interests
[1:01:52] that are competing in interests.
[1:01:58] Yeah. So like, let me just make up
[1:02:00] a hypothetical with that too.
[1:02:01] I'll go to this map over here.
[1:02:03] Um, I don't know, let's, let's just say, um,
[1:02:08] uh, gosh, what's the best way to do this?
[1:02:10] Again, I'm making this up.
[1:02:11] So, um, let's just say that, um, you know,
[1:02:15] Lafayette Elementary schools attendance area
[1:02:18] for some reason, you know, needed to kind of go
[1:02:21] in some other direction to kind
[1:02:23] of be split up into two different trustee areas, right?
[1:02:26] Well, on one hand, gosh, why should we keep, you know,
[1:02:29] Del Rey together and split up Lafayette Elementary?
[1:02:32] I get that. And ultimately the,
[1:02:34] those are choices the board will have to make
[1:02:36] because we still have to balance the population.
[1:02:39] So it's not gonna be possible to keep every single,
[1:02:46] um, community of interest together.
[1:02:47] Um, a lot of it's gonna depend on the total population
[1:02:50] and the density of that population, which
[1:02:52] somebody said is more kind of in the east.
[1:02:54] So you probably have more compact areas here
[1:02:57] and larger areas here spatially,
[1:02:59] but overall they'll be the same number.
[1:03:01] And somewhere we can't, we can't keep adding to a group if,
[1:03:05] if one, if one, you know, if we get up to here, let's say,
[1:03:08] and that's only 19,000 people, we need 4,000 more people.
[1:03:12] But if, you know,
[1:03:13] if this elementary school has 8,000 people living in it, um,
[1:03:18] well we can't take all eight either.
[1:03:19] That's too many. And so there's some, you know,
[1:03:22] where does it make sense to have those lines?
[1:03:24] It kind of just depends on what you all think,
[1:03:26] but there will definitely be splits that have to be made.
[1:03:30] Okay. Alright.
[1:03:32] And if, I guess my personal opinion is, is if we do have
[1:03:35] to do decisions around splits that we, uh, continue
[1:03:39] to consider the intent of the law and,
[1:03:41] and how that might impact marginalized
[1:03:43] communities in those areas.
[1:03:46] Um, and then so the data sets that we're pulling from,
[1:03:50] I understand some of the community requests are,
[1:03:54] are not gonna show up on the, the census, for example.
[1:03:59] Um, so if, if say there's a
[1:04:04] religious, like say there's a synagogue or a church
[1:04:07] and they say, we're a community of interest,
[1:04:08] but our membership is all around the area, is it kind of up
[1:04:13] to the community to tell you all, oh,
[1:04:16] we have a concentration of people here,
[1:04:18] or is it, um, like how if, if the community says we want you
[1:04:23] to pay attention to a community of interest
[1:04:25] and there's not a, like mountain range keeping it together,
[1:04:28] like how, how would you want the community
[1:04:33] to make kind of more helpful direction and feedback then?
[1:04:39] I think the way the community's
[1:04:40] been doing it has been helpful.
[1:04:41] I think a lot of the emails we received in the comments
[1:04:43] tonight, um, the, the themes
[1:04:45] that I keep hearing are keep Ross more together.
[1:04:49] Um, and also elementary school attendance areas are
[1:04:52] really important to folks.
[1:04:54] And then there's also some thought of, you know,
[1:04:56] splitting up, uh, high school attendance areas.
[1:04:58] And I'm sure David will give kind of a variety of looks
[1:05:00] that combine some of those things.
[1:05:01] Um, but that, that's how we get to know, right?
[1:05:03] We, Ross Moore is now on the map because of that.
[1:05:07] Um, and so, you know, if someone were to say, um,
[1:05:11] like concretely, hey, you know, everybody that lives say,
[1:05:14] you know, south of Reem Boulevard, um,
[1:05:16] and north of Mira Monte High School, that is a community
[1:05:19] of interest and you know, you all go,
[1:05:20] oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
[1:05:22] We would try to keep it together to the extent
[1:05:24] that it worked population wise,
[1:05:26] but again, more important than community
[1:05:28] of interest is balancing the population.
[1:05:30] Community of interest is not that far down the list,
[1:05:32] but is lower than that.
[1:05:33] So some communities
[1:05:35] of interest will automatically just be split, um,
[1:05:38] because we have to balance the population.
[1:05:42] Okay. Sorry, I know I'm asking you a lot of questions,
[1:05:44] but this is ours before we do the maps.
[1:05:47] Um, all right.
[1:05:48] So is there some of my requests, I guess are around, um,
[1:05:53] you know, to get more specific around the intent of the law
[1:05:58] to our particular district.
[1:06:00] Um, I'm, I'm not sure how you might find this information,
[1:06:04] but, um, in our district, one of our goals in our LCAP
[1:06:08] or around our special ed students, um, I really want to
[1:06:13] not also ignore the population in our community
[1:06:17] that understand
[1:06:18] or support the rights of people with disabilities.
[1:06:22] Um, and I would, uh, the reason I mentioned
[1:06:25] that very specifically is
[1:06:27] because this particular board, we make a lot
[1:06:28] of decisions based on our special ed students.
[1:06:32] Um, and, um, I would want to make sure that the community
[1:06:37] that we're making decisions on feel like they are,
[1:06:40] they have a chance at the vote
[1:06:42] and having a voice at the table.
[1:06:44] Um, I would like to also look at income
[1:06:49] and I'm not sure how you might do that or, um,
[1:06:53] but uh, you know, it's, it can very much impact access
[1:06:58] for school districts if you schedule meetings when working
[1:07:02] parents can't be there, for example.
[1:07:04] And so, um, that very much, you know, can impact the access
[1:07:08] to a student, a student's family to have influence
[1:07:12] or have a say or participate in our school communities.
[1:07:16] Um, so I would like you to look at income, um,
[1:07:21] and
[1:07:27] The, You know, folks that are,
[1:07:32] um, I guess folks that are top of mind to me,
[1:07:36] just especially right now, um, are folks
[1:07:40] that are immigrants particularly,
[1:07:42] I mean really any immigrant, any person of color,
[1:07:45] but like, um, you know, uh,
[1:07:49] definitely English not being their first language.
[1:07:52] Um, we do have a very large population in our,
[1:07:55] it's a very big program and it is also part of our lcap
[1:07:58] and I would want our, our board makes very important
[1:08:00] decisions around supporting those students.
[1:08:03] And so, um, that to me is,
[1:08:07] is a very relevant community of interest.
[1:08:10] Um, the, the location of folks
[1:08:13] that really are concerned about lgbtq plus rights is,
[1:08:18] um, uh, obviously I don't, I don't have a map for that,
[1:08:23] but I think regardless of whether you're able
[1:08:26] to find a data set on that, it's just really worth,
[1:08:29] worth noting and acknowledging that, um, that those folks
[1:08:34] and the folks that love them are historically marginalized
[1:08:38] folks that are particularly not feeling safe, um, in this
[1:08:43] community and in the country at large.
[1:08:46] So, um, I just want to make sure that we, um,
[1:08:50] even though we don't have numbers to show the visibility
[1:08:53] of them, that we really as a board,
[1:08:56] as we have in our prior discussions,
[1:08:58] acknowledge the visibility of those folks.
[1:09:00] Um, and I know these just numbers are incomplete, you know,
[1:09:04] with the immigrants, I'm, you know,
[1:09:05] especially if you have a census in 2020, um,
[1:09:12] following 2017, you're, you're just not, you know,
[1:09:15] gonna have a lot of, um, people
[1:09:19] who are not citizens
[1:09:20] or even people who are citizens, they're gonna feel safe
[1:09:23] to identify themselves.
[1:09:25] And certainly if you call, you know,
[1:09:27] asking about citizenship, that's,
[1:09:29] you're gonna get a bit of a scattershot.
[1:09:30] It's not gonna get a perfect data set.
[1:09:33] And that, again, that's not on any of us,
[1:09:34] but just wanna acknowledge that that alone is how some
[1:09:38] of these systemic inequities can occur.
[1:09:42] Um, so with that, I just want to just really, um,
[1:09:47] I know I'm making your job harder,
[1:09:49] but really, uh, reach for as much data as we can find,
[1:09:53] because I think it's pretty, our community is pretty unique
[1:09:58] in its demographics
[1:09:59] and so it requires to do this right, to do it to the intent
[1:10:03] of the law that we really get creative
[1:10:05] with the data that we're pulling.
[1:10:07] So, alright.
[1:10:13] Anybody else have, sorry, I know I took up a lot of time,
[1:10:15] but anybody else have any other thoughts, questions?
[1:10:20] No. Okay. Alright.
[1:10:24] So thank you for all your comments.
[1:10:26] The public hearing to receive public testimony
[1:10:29] concerning the composition
[1:10:30] of potential trustee voting areas is now closed.
[1:10:34] Please note, have a good night. Thank you.
[1:10:37] Please note that the following dates for the upcoming map,
[1:10:39] public hearings are September 3rd at 7 45.
[1:10:42] First map public hearing, September 17th at seven 22nd map,
[1:10:47] public hearing October 15th at seven 20.
[1:10:51] Last map, public hearing and final decision.
[1:10:54] All meetings will be held
[1:10:55] during the regular board meetings
[1:10:56] here at the district office.
[1:10:58] We'll make draft maps available
[1:11:00] to the public no later than August 27th, seven days prior
[1:11:05] to the first public first map public hearing.
[1:11:08] We will also email the maps to our email list at that time.
[1:11:14] Okay. And I, while we're not streaming,
[1:11:18] I think I have a lot of it recorded.
[1:11:21] Um, so we can patch it up
[1:11:22] and hopefully post most of it, uh, tomorrow,
[1:11:26] but certainly the audio we will post.
[1:11:28] So I apologize for that.
[1:11:30] Okay, great. Um, so moving on
[1:11:33] to item number four. Is that correct?
[1:11:35] Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, approval. This is the cons.
[1:11:40] Three three. This is just general public comment.
[1:11:42] Oh, right. Which can only be on the, has
[1:11:44] to be on agenda item, so it could only be
[1:11:46] on something on consent. Okay.
[1:11:48] So now is the time for item number three. Announce.
[1:11:52] So public comment to inform the public to,
[1:11:56] oh, sorry, I'm reading.
[1:11:58] It's written kind of funny. Sorry.
[1:12:00] Uh, So now's the time for general public comment.
[1:12:03] I don't see any right cards. I don't see any body.
[1:12:06] So I'm gonna move on to item number four, if that's okay.
[1:12:10] Okay. Um, now's the time for the consent calendar.
[1:12:14] Approval of the consent calendar means
[1:12:16] that all items are approved by single motion
[1:12:18] unless a member of the board
[1:12:19] or the superintendent requests an item be removed from the
[1:12:22] consent calendar voted upon separately.
[1:12:24] Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar items?
[1:12:27] 4.02 through 4.07,
[1:12:31] Um, isn't it 4.8 4.08 for field trips?
[1:12:36] This is 4.008. Sorry about that.
[1:12:39] I was gonna say, alright, just wanted, so,
[1:12:42] So 4.02 through 4.08, Correct.
[1:12:47] Um, so moved for
[1:12:49] The, for second. Second.
[1:12:50] And Ms. Wong, do you support the motion? I do.
[1:12:54] All, all those in favor say aye. Aye.
[1:12:56] All those opposed Motion passes. Five zero.
[1:13:00] Um, would like to move to, uh, is
[1:13:04] to item number five.
[1:13:06] Um, adjournment. Adjournment.
[1:13:08] Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting?
[1:13:12] So moved. Is there a second?
[1:13:14] Second. And Ms. Wong, do you support the motion? I do.
[1:13:17] All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed.
[1:13:20] Motion passes. Five zero. Thank you everybody.