Board narrows trustee-area map choices to two after demographer presentation

The Rocklin Unified School District Board of Trustees on Monday heard a detailed presentation of 10 draft trustee‑area maps and signaled consensus around two community maps for refinement before the next public hearing.

Dr. Justin Leavitt of National Demographics Corporation reviewed the district's mapping rules, saying the maps must meet federal population-equality standards and state criteria such as contiguity, avoiding unnecessary division of neighborhoods and following ‘‘easily identifiable’’ boundaries such as major roads. ‘‘It is not possible in this district to draw a majority protected class district,’’ Leavitt told the board, noting that the Voting Rights Act and state law shaped the options the district posted for public review.

Leavitt explained the timeline: maps must be posted publicly for seven full days prior to a hearing; the board set a May 1 public hearing to consider posted revisions and a May 15 adoption hearing for a final map. He also summarized technical trade-offs among the drafts, including one long census block that constrains compactness across several versions.

Trustees discussed community priorities and asked staff to return with focused revisions. Trustee Saathoff and others said they were inclined toward maps that keep HOA and neighborhood groupings together and that follow elementary attendance boundaries where feasible. Trustee Price noted some maps preserved a higher concentration of Asian residents in the Twin Oaks area and asked staff to explain how small boundary choices affect demographic percentages.

One public commenter, Kevin Cooper, urged the board to slow the process and improve outreach and clarity of posted notes. After the hearing portion of the meeting, trustees agreed — without a formal roll‑call vote — to ask the demographer to prepare revisions focused on maps 103 and 104 and to present those refined ‘‘focus maps’’ at the next hearing.

What happens next: the demographer will prepare revised map versions that address the board's requested refinements (for example, aligning borders to major roads and consolidating split neighborhoods) and the district will post any resubmitted maps for public review ahead of the May hearings.