Furor rages over trustee area plan

Map threatened to remove Garibay from school board

Madera Unified School District’s attempt to adjust its trustee voting areas to reflect demographic changes almost moved a longtime board member out of the area he represents.

Robert Garibay, a 20-year veteran of the board, came to a meeting of the trustees Tuesday night and discovered that, in addition to the three maps shown to the public, a brand new one had popped up and threatened to leave him with two choices: move or retire from the school board.

Doug Johnson of National Demographics dropped the bombshell when he presented the board with four maps instead of three from which they would choose to create new trustee voting areas. The new map was the result of last-minute consultations between Johnson and Madera Community Action Network, a group of community activists.

The attempt to include a new map with the other three that had already been unveiled to the public four times raised a storm of protests...