COSTA MESA NEWPORT BEACH : Panel to Redraw School Trustee Boundaries

A plan to have community representatives draw new boundaries for Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee areas is proceeding, with a proposal for choosing the panel expected this month.

Board member Jim de Boom asked district officials to look into changing trustee area boundaries because “the population distribution is out of whack.”

Trustee Edward H. Decker’s area, for example, includes 9% of the district’s total population and its registered voters, as well as 8% of the school population. That contrasts with Trustee James M. Ferryman’s area, which has 22% of the total population in the district, 23% of students and 19% of registered voters.

Though state law generally requires school districts to have a roughly equal total population in each trustee area, that does not apply to Newport-Mesa, a district legal opinion states.

Even though each of the seven trustees must live within the area he or she represents, all are elected by voters in the whole district.

Board President Judith A. Franco, whose area includes just 5% of the student population, said at-large elections allay her concern about population distribution in trustee areas.

But others shared De Boom’s concern for equitable representation.

“Our population shifts all the time,” board member Serene R. Stokes said. “I don’t think we are ever going to have equity in any one area.”

At the board’s latest meeting De Boom said that he would prefer to have a community committee work up a plan for new boundaries and, if possible, that each trustee area be confined within one of the district’s four high school attendance zones.