[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.

AUHSD Governing Board Meeting: August 20, 2025

Transcript