September 10, 2019, 1:00-2:00 pm and again at 6:00-7:00 pm

Public Hearing #4 will be held in late September or early October based upon the feedback NUSD receives in the input sessions.  Comments can also be sent to [email protected].

The suggested considerations from Cooperative Strategies for the design of the trustee areas include:

• Each area shall contain nearly equal numbers of inhabitants
• Each area will be drawn to comply with the Federal Voting Rights Act
• Each area will be compact and contiguous, as much as possible
• Each area will respect communities of interest, as much as possible
• Each area will follow man-made and natural geographic features as much as possible.
• The Trustees agreed with these considerations and told the demographer to not consider incumbents’ residences as a criterion in the drawing of trustee areas.

Trustees also discussed additional considerations. Options to consider included:

• Having more than one school in a given area
• Not separating neighborhoods
• Having majority minority areas where possible

The Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to begin the process of moving from at-large elections to district elections for the 2020 election cycle at a special meeting on March 21, 2019.  Since that time, the district selected Cooperative Strategies as the demographer to help NUSD design new district trustee areas.

On May 7, 2019, Cooperative Strategies, presented the process for making this change, including suggestions for the criteria that should be used to design the new trustee areas. Additionally, at this meeting, the Trustees informed Cooperative Strategies that the demographer should not consider incumbents’ residences as a consideration in the drawing of trustee areas.

On May 21, 2019 Novato Unified School District’s Board of Trustees discussed possible criteria that the demographer, Cooperative Strategies, would consider when designing possible maps of new district trustee areas.