Lucia Mar proposes new trustee representation

The Lucia Mar Unified School District has taken another step toward reshaping its trustee areas to better represent a shifting population, though some are not happy with the proposed changes.

The Lucia Mar Unified School District Board of Trustees received a report last week on three ways the district could rearrange its areas — or where trustees are chosen from — to give more equal representation to underrepresented portions of the district, such as Nipomo.

The board will vote on whether to implement any of those options at its next meeting March 1.

The governing board is made up of seven trustees, each serving four-year terms, and is chosen by voters districtwide. They represent four geographic areas, and each area has a set number of trustees based on its population when the district unified in 1966.

Since then, the population throughout the district has shifted, but the number of trustees from each area has stayed the same.

“Since the trustee areas have not been amended in 50 years, now is an optimal time to make corrections to an outdated plan and make sure each trustee area has at least two representatives and that their terms are alternating to allow for the democratic process,” trustee Colleen Martin said Friday.

At its meeting last week, the board reviewed three options that would add at least one trustee for Nipomo, which only has one representative on the board. Some said, however, they were concerned that would take representation from other areas.

Two of the proposed maps would meld Oceano — the smallest of the district’s areas — with another area, such as Nipomo or Arroyo Grande. The Oceano-with-Nipomo option would increase that area’s trustees to three and reduce Arroyo Grande’s to two. If the board chose to combine Oceano with Arroyo Grande, however, Nipomo would get two trustees and the new Arroyo Grande/Oceano area would have three — the same amount the Arroyo Grande area currently has.

Both options keep two trustees for the Pismo/Grover Beach area.

The third map would keep Oceano as its own district, but would remove a trustee for Arroyo Grande and add one for Nipomo.

Speakers at Tuesday night’s meeting spoke in support of keeping Oceano separate, claiming that melding it with another area would hurt the small community.

“To take a voice away from one community to another seems counterintuitive to the purpose of the proposal at all,” Oceano resident Matthew Guerrero said after the meeting. “Fairness would require proportional representation for all of the communities.”

Guerroro said he hopes the board will decide to keep Oceano as its own area.

“I think that’s important to maintain because Oceano is unique — moreso than some of the other cities and communities in the district,” he said.

Martin, who represents Arroyo Grande, said she thinks combining Oceano with another area could increase its representation by giving candidates interested in representing Oceano more opportunities to run.

Because the four-year terms are staggered in areas with more than one trustee, a seat in one of those areas is typically up for grabs every two years. For Nipomo and Oceano, both of which only have one trustee, the seats are only open every four years. By melding Oceano with another area, any Oceano resident interested in representing the town on the board would have a much shorter time to wait for a seat to open, Martin said.

“There’s also nothing to say that if Oceano combines with another area, that all three of the representatives from that area couldn’t be from Oceano,” she said.

Martin stressed that no matter the decision, the trustees will still be chosen at large, meaning everyone within the district will vote on all of the trustees, not just those in their own areas. This encourages the trustees to represent the entire district and not just their own area’s interests.

The board will consider whether it wants to approve any of the three maps at its next meeting March 1. In the meantime, the board is encouraging members of the public to examine the maps and send in their input. Comments can be sent to board@lmusd.org.

If the district approves a map with potential boundary changes, it will then have to present that to the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education for review. Depending on the timeline, the new boundaries could be in place prior to the November election, in which three seats on the board will be up for grabs.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Lucia Mar proposes new trustee representation."