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The Pleasanton school board is set to vote on the final boundary map for trustee area-based elections on Thursday evening during what will be the board’s first in-person meeting since the pandemic began.
The board adopted a resolution last October indicating its intent to transition the Pleasanton Unified School District from at-large to by-trustee area elections.
Trustees considered five proposed maps and posted them online for consideration before narrowing their list down to two maps, “Scenario 4” and “Scenario 5” — one of which is expected to be decided on Thursday.
The proposed trustee area boundary map aims to have five trustee areas divided with populations as close as possible, among other criteria, including school attendance area representation as well. A candidate can only run for school board in the trustee area they reside in.
The discussion Thursday will also focus on how to sequence the election schedule for the new trustee areas. Under both final scenarios, Area 2 and Area 5 would be on the November 2022 ballot.
Board President Mark Miller, who lives in Area 5, previously said he would not run for re-election after his term ends this fall. No current trustee lives in Area 2.
Trustee Joan Laursen, whose term is up this year and also is not seeking re-election, resides in Area 3 like Trustee Kelly Mokashi. Area 3, like Trustee Mary Jo Carreon’s Area 1 and Steve Maher’s Area 4, would be on the November 2024 ballot, in line with when those three trustees’ current terms expire.
During the map drafting process, the public was asked to provide input regarding the composition of trustee area boundaries. But PUSD’s Student Board Member Saachi Bhayani said many residents were disgruntled with the challenges of the process because of technical glitches and tools that were difficult to navigate.
“It made it kind of impossible for the community to actually propose boundaries, because they weren’t given the same access to the same tools,” Bhayani told the Weekly.
The PUSD Board of Trustees open meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Thursday (March 24) at the district headquarters, as well as livestreaming on TV28. The full agenda can be found here.
Editor’s note: Editor Jeremy Walsh contributed to this story.
