OCEANSIDE — Trustee area boundaries have shifted following the Oceanside Unified School District board’s recent approval of a new electoral map, which for some voters means their trustee area has changed.
Oceanside Unified was required to redistrict its trustee areas following the release of the 2020 Census, which changed voter and population data throughout the city.
Back in 2017, the school board switched to a by-trustee area election system from an at-large one to ensure compliance with the California Voting Rights Act and avoid any legal action against the district.
The district is split into five different trustee areas, and the voters of each district vote on their respective trustee to represent them. Trustees must live in the district they represent.
A district election system requires the school board to approve adjustments to trustee areas following each federal census, which are due by March 1 this year.
As The Coast News previously reported, the 2020 Census numbers threw off the districts’ balance by creating a 21.9% population variance between each of the districts. For example, in Trustee Area No. 3, the current population is 24,735 people while Trustee Area No. 5 has 30,730 people. Board officials need that variance number to be below 10%.
The board chose between three different scenarios and selected the third scenario as the new trustee district map, which brings that population variance down to 2.5%. Each of the district’s boundaries was adjusted around the edges.
Trustee Area No. 3 is absorbing No. 1’s chunk between Interstate 5 and North Coast Highway, while No. 1 is moving westward into a northwestern section of No. 2. Then, No. 2 is swapping its northern section with No. 5 for its southeastern portion. No. 3 also absorbed a small sliver of No. 4 in the northwestern area.
In this new district map, Trustee Area No. 4 has the highest population at 27,805 people while No. 1 has the smallest population with 27,117 people.
Redistricting consultant Susan Miller noted that the 2020 Census’s socio-economic data has not been released yet, thus the district was unable to take that data into consideration when forming the district adjustments.
Board Clerk Mike Blessing, who serves Trustee Area No. 5, said the third redistricting scenario made the most sense, particularly the two sections swapped between No. 5 and No. 2, which is served by Trustee Eleanor Juanita Evans.
“That area where McAuliffe Elementary is and all of those single-family homes have been in my district for a couple of years, but they relate more to (Evans’) area south of Oceanside Boulevard,” Blessing said. “I think it’s more consistent.”
