Santa Rosa school board postpones vote on trustee boundaries

Santa Rosa City Schools board members had planned this week to approve trustee boundaries, a move that would abandon districtwide elections and allow voters to cast a ballot by geographic area. However, the school board postponed its vote to next month to allow for additional map proposals to be drafted.

Demographers previously created three maps, some using highways 101 and 12 as borders and dividing the west side into three separate districts, including one that covers all of the heavily Latino Roseland neighborhood. District officials sent those proposal back to the drawing board to create additional maps, taking into consideration feedback they received during public hearings and community meetings.

“It’s meant to be an iterative process, to receive feedback from the community and for the board to react,” said Milton Foster, an attorney representing the district in the process.

The maps should be completed and available for review by Feb. 9, district spokeswoman Beth Berk said. They’ll then go before the board for a public hearing on Feb. 14, with a final vote scheduled for Feb. 28.

The school board voted 6-0 in August to scrap at-large elections in favor of district contests. The move came weeks after Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman, who represents a Texas-based voting rights group, threatened to sue the district and city of Santa Rosa on claims that both were disenfranchising Latino voters.

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 707-521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.