RIPON – A public hearing is scheduled for April 9 on Ripon Unified’s proposed reapportionment plan.

The San Joaquin County Board of Education will be on hand that day to review the redrawn trustee area boundaries.

The session is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. at Ripon City Hall, 259 Wilma Ave., prior to the regularly scheduled RUSD meeting.

Trustees Ernie Tyhurst and Kit Oase were part of the subcommittee that spent several months studying and reworking the nominating area lines, using data from the 2010 U.S. Census.

The goal here was to meet the spirit and intent of the “one person, one vote” ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court some 40 years ago, according to Oase.

 The existing boundaries, they determined, were found to be out of alignment. Included was one trustee representing about 1,679 people while two other areas had over 4,300.

“The imbalance is the result of population growth over the past 10 years,” Oase said.

After several public hearings, the subcommittee came up with the proposal to balance the boundaries within the school district that called for each trustee to represent roughly 3,472 people.

Oase indicated that the group discussed the history behind the “one person, one vote” principle, looking at the need to redraw the lines, examining the advantages and disadvantages in the method of electing representatives to the school board while determining the criteria used in redrawing the boundaries.

Following the upcoming public hearing, the County Committee on School District Organization is scheduled to take action on changing the trustee nominating boundaries for candidates vying for the school board come November.

More information can be obtained by calling RUSD at 209-599-2131.