A final public hearing will determine Clovis Unified’s voting areas. Here’s what to know
Community members have a final chance to comment at a Clovis public hearing before the school district votes on what map to adopt for their district-based elections process.
The Clovis Unified School District board of trustees will meet again this Wednesday, Oct. 18, to discuss and vote on two proposed maps – one from the district’s legal counsel and the other from the Central Valley Equitable Maps Coalition (EMC).
Whichever of the two proposed maps gets selected will define who will be able to vote for their area representative, meaning trustees will no longer be voted on by every registered voter but only those within their area boundaries.
Clovis Unified currently follows its Trustee Area Map, with seven defined areas and a representative for each. Elected trustees are voted onto the board by all registered voters across the entire district.
At a glance, the district’s proposed map roughly follows the boundaries of the already established areas but it has a population deviation among the seven areas of 4.66%, which some critics say could be lower.
In fact, Map 201 brought forward to the district by Lori Pesante, civic engagement director for the Dolores Huerta Foundation, on behalf of the EMC., has a deviation of just .04%, meaning there’s a more balanced distribution of population across the district’s seven areas.
Clovis Unified is the 14th largest school district in California and its student body is composed of 40% Hispanic students, 34% White, 16% Asian and 3% Black according to the district’s website.
With a smaller total population count per area, Map 201’s proposed boundaries also result in increased total Hispanic and Asian American populations in three areas compared to the district’s proposed map, which means there could be more equitable representation in total individuals per area and diversity.
Map 201 advocates said these proposed changes – natural increases in Latino and Asian populations when the seven area populations are similar – can allow for Latino and Asian Clovis residents to potentially elect board trustees that represent their communities and concerns.
Areas 1, 6 and 7 see Hispanic populations increase to 32.4% from 29.8%, to 42% from 41%, and to 34% from 30% respectively. Areas 2 and 3 remain with the same estimate, and Areas 4 and 5 see small decreases to 21% from 23% and to 28% from 31%.
Asian-American communities’ total populations increase in areas 4, 5 and 7 – to 16% from 15%, to 17% from 13%, and to 27% from 23% respectively. Area 6 has the larger decrease, to 10% from 18%, but the others are almost all single-point differences from the district’s proposed map: Area 1 changes to 12% from 13%, Area 2 to 18% from 19%, and Area 3 to 14% from 16%.
It’s unclear if Clovis Unified has elected a Latino board member before. District spokesperson Kelly Avants said the district doesn’t ask people to declare their race when running for school board, The Bee reported in August, and therefore she then couldn’t answer specific questions about the race of current or previous board members.
During the school board’s meeting on Sept. 20, three of the main proponents of this map spoke about the benefits they see in their proposal compared to the district’s map.
When Fresno County went through the redistricting processes recently, “we heard a lot about how important it is to keep communities of interest together,” Pesante said during the school board’s meeting on Sept. 20.
With the district’s proposed area boundaries, “your Latino and Asian communities have no chance to do anything to influence this board or this district under that map,” she said.
Daniel O’Connell, policy and research director at the Central Valley Partnership, echoed Pesante’s sentiments.
“This is really disappointing, that there is no change to these maps,” O’Connell said. “They’re just the same maps that have existed before when we’re having extreme, tremendous demographic change in the region.”
The author of the map, Jesús García, encouraged the board to select Map 201. García, a geographic information systems specialist and owner/CEO of La Cresta Demographics, has worked with organizations – including the U.S. Census – to propose equitable maps across the Valley and to encourage Latino representation.
García said the EMC’s proposed map is concise, population-balanced and creates opportunities for Latino and Asian communities.
“If Clovis likes excellence,” he said, “you select the map that has a .5% variance as opposed to a map that has 4.6%.”
The board discussed Map 201 during their Oct. 4 meeting. Pesante, O’Connell and García were not in attendance, and no one spoke on behalf of the proposed map. As several board members shared their perspectives, the board’s conversation favored the district’s own proposal.
Board president and representative for Area 2 David DeFrank was “discouraged” by map 201 because Area 7 would have only one high school area in it, he said, “and that trustee would presumably become pretty associated with that high school area.”
Therefore, that potential trustee could pit high school areas against each other and deter the district from making decisions that would, “benefit the entire district as a whole,” DeFrank said, “and I think that’s the kind of thing we would like to avoid.”
Steven Fogg, Area 5 trustee, acknowledged there had been a few people speaking in favor of Map 201 in the Sept. 20 meeting. However, “we have no one here today,” Fogg said during the board’s last meeting on Oct. 4.
“I’m not sure it’s because they looked at it and realized it is an inferior choice,” he said of Map 201, “or why we have no one in favor of this map, which I am kind of surprised we have no one speaking.”
Wednesday’s meeting presents an opportunity for community members to speak on the proposed maps during the final public hearing at Clovis Unified.
Once the district decides on what map to use and vote on whether they’ll adapt a district-based elections process, then the Fresno County Committee on School District Organization will host a public hearing to approve or disapprove what Clovis Unified decided on sometime before the end of the calendar year.
The Clovis Unified board meets every other Wednesday, and its public session begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Professional Development Building at 1680 David E Cook Way. Board agendas can be found at cusd.com/BoardAgendas.aspx, and more information about the change to district-based elections at cusd.com/ProposedTransitiontoDistrictBasedElectionSystem2023.aspx.