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Healdsburg Unified holds public hearing on trustee‑area maps as district transitions to by‑trustee‑area elections
Summary
Board held the second map public hearing required under California law to gather input on five proposed trustee‑area maps. Presenters reviewed population targets, Voting Rights Act considerations and several map options; the hearing closed after public input and trustees directed staff on next steps.
The Healdsburg Unified School District Board convened a public hearing to receive testimony on proposed trustee voting‑area maps as the district moves from at‑large to by‑trustee‑area elections. The board explained the statutory process, citing California Election Code Section 110 and a required sequence of public hearings.
A district demographer presented five draft map options and the underlying population calculations. The presenter said the district population is about 16,070 and that each trustee area should contain roughly 3,203 people, with an allowable variance of about 10 percent between largest and smallest trustee areas. He highlighted that Latino residents make up about 31 percent of the total population but about 17 percent of the citizen‑voting‑age population (CVAP), and explained that the CVAP figures affect Voting Rights Act compliance and the likelihood of creating a majority‑Latino single‑member district.
Map options varied in how they grouped rural and in‑town neighborhoods. The "green" map consolidates rural census blocks into a single trustee area while concentrating the other four areas in the city. The "orange" map splits rural areas with a west/east approach. The "purple" map uses an east/west rural split and crosses the freeway in some places; the "teal" map tested a quadrant approach that brings corner areas into the city. Presenters repeatedly noted that census block boundaries must remain intact, which produces some unusual shapes to meet population targets.
Members of the public and trustees raised community‑of‑interest concerns. One resident urged keeping Parkland Farms intact as a single voting bloc; another noted that many district residents live outside the Healdsburg city limits yet have a stake in district governance. Trustees and speakers asked staff to add supplemental demographic breakdowns (for example, percent of households with children under 18) to the data packet for future hearings.
The hearing was closed after public testimony and the board scheduled additional public hearings and a final map adoption hearing later in the process. Staff directed residents to the district website and an interactive map tool for detailed views of each option.
