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1108 Bissell Avenue
Richmond, CA 94801-3135
Gloria L. Johnston, Ph.D.
Cathie Kosel, Redistricting Manager
Superintendent of Schools
Tel: (510) 234-3825, ext. 2424
December 2, 2003
Purpose: To develop and implement a plan to assure that the redistricting process conforms to existing Board of Education Policy No. BP 5116; to assure that attendance areas are drawn consistent with community values and the law; and to assure that the process provides equity, access and justice for all children of our community.
In Attendance:
Adrienne Blalock, Howard Cohen, Ann Francisco, Bonnie Glover, George Harris, Vince Kilmartin, Cheryl King, Cathie Kosel, Kevin MacQuarrie, Janet McMurray, Vera Rowsey, Antoinette Henry-Evans, Galinda Cardona (H), David Cole (P), Abir Kaddoura (SP), Toya Ruffin (EC), Rhonda Scott ( R), Kaye Burnside, Alan Del Simone, Karen Fenton, George Harris.
Absent: Nia Rashidchi
Cheryl King of Jack Schreder and Associates continued the presentation of the AGIS data from the11/20/03 meeting. The maps indicated last year's residence data. King agreed to bring the mapping data incorporating this year's resident student data to our next meeting.
A discussion of redistricting issues took place and the committee made some suggestions and recommendations.
1. The committee felt that preparing a plan for the 2004/05 school year may be difficult because of time constraints, although they agreed it would be best to move forward to prepare one as soon as is practical.
2. The committee suggested that a task force be formed by the Superintendent to investigate procedural issues and standardize the annual reporting of resident addresses to determine if school assignments are being made accurately, if not why not, and to prescribe a process to be implemented to ensure that assignments are accurate. Inaccurate addresses and inaccurate school assignments are a serious problem for redistricting.
3. The committee felt that staff should proceed to investigate the possibility of providing more elementary capacity in central and north Richmond by either building new facilities or converting others.
4. Parents and Board of Education members unanimously agreed to ask Schreder & Associates to present various draft scenario options for redistricting so that parents can provide input. There was general agreement about reviewing various scenarios prior to taking proposals to the larger public. The parent
members responded that it would be better that these complex proposals be evaluated by this committee before submitting them to the larger meetings for feedback. The draft scenarios will be available no sooner than December 16th. The fiscal impact of each scenario should be presented as fully as possible.
5. To address our fiscal crisis, the possibility of combining some schools was discussed. The committee was sensitive to the request from the Superintendent to consider combining some small schools to reduce cost for next year and to speed up the redistricting process.
6. Members urged that we be flexible in regards to grade level configurations (i.e., consider K-4, K-5, K-6, etc. where practical).
A tentative date for the next meeting was set for December 16. It may change if Schreder is unable to complete the draft scenario options by that date.
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