GCOE rejects adding 2 more trustees

The Glenn County Board of Education rejected a proposal Wednesday to reconfigure its longtime five-member-panel to seven.

The 3-2 decision came after weeks of trying to draw boundaries based on 2010 census data that works best for the voting population of Glenn County, officials said.

The process became even more complicated after the board discovered Monday the five new trustee areas adopted last week are invalid, based on the one-man, one vote principle, said Board Chairwoman Judy Holzapfel.

Holzapfel said the new areas, which equal about 5,800 people each, were drawn to include residents that vote in the Capay Joint Union Elementary School District, but who vote strictly in Tehama County for representatives on a county Board of Education.

Those people will have to be removed from the trustee areas, because under the Tehama County Charter, they would not be eligible to vote for a member of the Glenn County Board of Education.

"You can't have one man - two votes," she said.

The trustee area boundaries will have to be redrawn and the language written in order to meet the March 1 redistricting requirement, Holzapfel.

The five new areas, which closely resemble to the five supervisorial districts will be tweaked slightly to pick up another 100 people each, she said.

As for moving to a seven-member board, only Gail Zimmerman of Hamilton City and Janice Cannon of Elk Creek maintained support for keeping trustees areas small and unique, based upon a community of interest.

Hamilton City schools have been the historic center for Zimmerman's trustee area for more than 30 years.

It will now include Princeton.

Not only have Elk Creeks schools been at the center of Cannon's district for decades, the area has a large Native American population which Cannon had hoped to keep as a community of interest.

Cannon's district will now include west Willows and Artois.

Holzapfel, who represents the Orland area, Kathy Perez, who represents the Princeton area and Gene Massa, who represents the Willows area, rejected increasing the Board of Education to seven members.

The Board's advisers have long discouraged the reconfiguration, stating seven and even nine-member boards are typically found in counties with populations over 200,000.

Although the cost of redistricting cannot be considered when drawing trustee boundaries, the additional expense to Glenn County voters was not lost on the panel.

Glenn County Clerk-Recorder Sheryl Thur told the Board of Education on Wednesday that a change to seven members would require the county to add several new voting precincts and draw up new ballot types reflecting seven unique areas, which the county may not be able to accomplish by November when three Glenn County Board of Education seats are up for election.

Approving a seven-member board would have needed a two-third majority to pass, and then require the support of the county electorate or a waiver by the state Board of Education to implement, Holzapfel said.

The Board of Education will meet in special open session at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to reconsider the five trustee area boundaries lines and adopt the officials language for submission to the Board of Supervisors by March 1.

CONTACT Susan Meeker at 934-6800 or smeeker@tcnpress.com.