Newport-Mesa will hold hearings on adjusted school trustee areas
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board decided to hold public hearings on three adjusted boundary maps for trustee areas Tuesday that are designed to make the areas’ populations more uniform.
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FOR THE RECORD
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the school board had approved one of the proposed adjusted boundaries for trustee districts. In fact, the board unanimously approved holding public hearings on all three proposed maps.
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The board, on a 7-0 vote, chose to hold public hearings on the boundary adjustments, created by DecisionInsite, an Irvine-based demographic consultant.
During the meeting, board member Martha Flour questioned whether the U.S. Census, slated for 2020, would require the district to adjust trustee boundaries again.
“[The board] is late to the dance at this time. This is the moment where you play catch-up,” said Bruce Terry, director of client support for DecisionInsite.
Terry said another review would be done after the census report.
Map B, which a district committee prefers, aligns with city boundaries where possible and provides a clean look overall, officials said.
The district plans to schedule two hearings in coming months in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach where the public can provide input about all three maps.
The population goal for each zone is about 27,000, said Annette Franco, spokeswoman for the district.
In Map B, trustee areas 1, 2 and 7 are within Costa Mesa, and areas 3, 4 and 5 are within Newport Beach.
Area 6 is split between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.
Area 7 would continue to have a Latino majority, but the population would increase or decrease to provide more balance with other zones, Annette Franco said. How much it would increase or decrease isn’t known, she added.
Data presented in June indicated that the existing Area 2, which includes six Costa Mesa schools, and Area 7, which contains five Westside Costa Mesa elementary schools, have populations of about 40,000.
Area 4, which has the largest population at 46,171, includes Corona del Mar middle and high schools and five Newport Beach elementary schools.
Area 6, containing Woodland Elementary School in Costa Mesa and three Newport Beach schools, and Area 3, containing Back Bay High School and Kaiser and Mariners elementary schools, have populations just over 19,000.
Area 1, where the population is 17,464, includes Estancia and Early College high schools, TeWinkle Intermediate School and three Costa Mesa elementary schools.
Board members are required to live in one of the seven trustee areas and are elected through an at-large system, meaning by voters throughout the school district.
Last year, Newport-Mesa hired DecisionInsite to study each trustee area. The study concluded that zones should be adjusted to help even out the areas’ populations, especially on the east side of the district, where population growth surged.
The areas have not been altered since the school district formed 50 years ago.
In February, DecisionInsite demonstrated three maps that could be used for the boundary adjustments.
Meanwhile, litigation is pending over a complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court in August alleging that the district’s at-large system for electing board members violates the California Voting Rights Act by preventing Latinos “from electing candidates of their choice.”
The complaint by Costa Mesa resident Eloisa Rangel alleges that the trustee areas, as apportioned, “exacerbate the vote dilution of NMUSD’s at-large election system.”
It reads that Rangel tried to resolve the matter without judicial intervention but was met with “foot-dragging and bald, unilateral determinations by [Newport-Mesa].”
The district responded in October that it “denies all material allegations of the complaint.”
Seeking to avoid litigation costs, Supt. Fred Navarro advised the board to change the election system by November 2018 so trustees would be elected by area instead of at large.
That possibility will be part of the public discussions, board President Karen Yelsey said last month.
Newport-Mesa is on a growing list of school districts and cities being sued over their voting systems.
Kevin Shenkman, a Malibu-based attorney representing Rangel, said last month that “we want to ensure that minority community votes are no longer diluted.”
Shenkman filed lawsuits last year against the city of Palmdale and the San Marcos Unified School District, arguing that their voting systems deprived Latinos of electing representatives of their choice.
He also threatened to sue the city of Costa Mesa. But in November, a majority of Costa Mesa voters approved a change to district-based, rather than at-large, elections. The new system is expected to be in place by the City Council election in November 2018.
Twitter: @VegaPriscella
