Hollister School District’s five trustee areas will undergo small changes for the November 2022 general election after the board voted unanimously on a new map during their Feb. 22 meeting.
The board instituted Trustee Areas in November 2019.
The board considered three scenarios for redistricting as part of decennial requirements to maintain population balance and consider Hispanic voting percentages.
Legal counsel Nicole Tucker, an associate from Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, said the district did grow in population, which required some adjustment to trustee area boundaries, adding that the 2020 Census provided estimates of Hispanic voting percentages based on data from 2015-19.
She said the consideration for the selected map as well as alternative map was to balance those population demographics while staying as close to the current trustee area boundaries as possible. A third map was added later in the process which made larger changes to boundaries based on demographer projections for future growth in Hollister.
HSD Board president Carla Torres-Deluna said the board conducted a hearing for public feedback on Jan. 28 on the first two map scenarios, while adding a Feb. 11 public hearing for the third map scenario.
“We’ve had the surveys posted online for several weeks now,” Superintendent Erika Sanchez said. “We did have two responses online. Both responses favored the second map.”
“It doesn’t take into consideration anything beyond the voting populations or those special communities of interest,” Tucker said of the maps when asked whether any favor was shown to sitting trustees.
Torres-Deluna reminded the board that stakeholder input was used in creating the three maps.
“The board has considered all such public input and comment on the plans and the board desires to adopt Plan 2,” Torres-Deluna said.
Approved changes to the district boundaries were centered on groups of residential blocks. The approved Trustee Area map is here.
The population totals in each area range from 9,978 to 10,219. Tucker’s presentation showed an ideal goal of 10,093 people per area.
“I have really studied these and I’m very happy with what we’ve got,” trustee Jan Grist said before motioning to adopt the second map.
Before the voting was held, trustee Elizabeth Martinez voiced concerns about the future growth of Hollister affecting trustee areas built on past data.
“The city is growing. I don’t know that we would have a true reflection of the growth and representation,” Martinez said.
“In 10 years moving forward, we’ll definitely know where the growth ended up and then we can readjust at that point,” trustee Lisa Marks said
Tucker’s presentation included demographics based on 2020 Census data showing the school district’s population breakdown as follows:
- Hispanic/Latino: 33,068 (65.5%)
- White: 13,338 (26.4%)
- Black/African American: 392 (0.8%)
- American Indian/Alaska Native: 162 (0.3%)
- Asian: 1,823 (3.6%)
- Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 100 (0.2%)
- Other: 236 (0.5%)
- Two or More Races: 1,347 (2.7%)
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.
