Santa Rosa Junior College would like to change its district lines and create seven equally populated districts with one trustee each, and is analyzing the switch from the current total of five districts.

“The only question is how it happens,” said Jordan Burns, trustee and west county representative.  “There are different options.”

The board of trustees has presented two options, and they both look to maintain school district boundaries. Redistricting plans have been proposed by public advocacy groups as well.

All of the proposals plan to split the large Santa Rosa district into three individual districts.

Santa Rosa has three trustees as opposed to the other districts, which have one.  The board would like to assign every trustee their own clear cut area.

Some trustees feel having seven districts would be more representative.

“If you look at [the Santa Rosa district] it’s three times the size of others,” said trustee and board Vice President Maggie Fishman.  Fishman explained that in a large district with three trustees, it’s difficult to know exactly who represents a certain area.

There is also the matter of fairness for trustees, considering the difference in cost to run for the board in a small district as opposed to in Santa Rosa.

“It is much harder to run a campaign in a super district,” Burns said.

The proposed district maps are available on the SRJC website, www.santarosa.edu, and public feedback and comments are welcome.

The consensus amongst all of the plans is a simpler form of representation.  “One representative, one area,” Burns said.

The next step for redistricting involves review and approval from the public and governmental bodies including the County Committee and the State Board of Education.  It will likely be several months before a decision is made, according to SRJC senior vice president Doug Roberts.