New PUSD Task Force Map

A Pasadena Unified School District task force charged with coming up with a plan to form sub-districts for the election of school board members unveiled a new "consensus map" plan that it will likely recommend to the school board as the best way to carve up the district.

The committee is working on developing maps of geographic sub-districts that would make board members accountable to specific geographic areas of Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre.

The redistricting process has been underway since January, when the school board  to study the issue.

The task force released the new map on Saturday.  It was intended as a way to bring out elements of four previous maps that would satisfy the concerns that various advocacy groups, city officials, and other interested citizens had with some of the maps.

Sierra Madre a Major Player in its District

As , the task force was previously looking at four different maps, two of which would give Sierra Madre residents a voting majority.

When Bart Doyle, Sierra Madre's representative on the PUSD Districting Task Force, presented the maps to the a City Council, they moved to support the two maps that would give Sierra Madre a majority of the vote- map 3 and map 3-1.

The new consensus map, which is pictured on right along with the four older maps, is an offshoot of maps 3 and 3-1... giving Sierra Madre a majority vote in its district. This could pave the way for a representative from Sierra Madre to serve on the PUSD board.

What's Next

The task force plans to hold three more meetings to get input on the map. The map could still change before the task force recommends it to the board, depending on what input it receives from community members.

The PUSD board, which must approve the plan, will have meetings on it on March 27 and April 24.  If approved, the plan goes on the June ballot for PUSD voters to approve or reject.  A similar reform was voted in 2000 and narrowly rejected by voters.

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