North Monterey County Unified School District wins an appeal to keep its district intact.

Your address determines which school district you live in. And the lines around school districts are relatively fixed.

In 2019, residents of the Hidden Canyon Ranch development in Prunedale petitioned to change the lines, moving 13 parcels from North Monterey County Unified School District into Lagunita Elementary School District and Salinas Union High School District for upper grades, consistent with 13 other parcels in the neighborhood. The Monterey County Office of Education approved the change in 2020.

But North Monterey County Unified appealed, and won at the California State Board of Education, which voted 9-0 on Sept. 11 to keep the current district boundaries intact. The change – or rather, lack of a change – prevents the loss of $140,000 a year in revenue. Beyond keeping dollars in the district, it also keeps students from Hidden Canyon in the district.

“This is more than just a victory for NMCUSD; it is a victory for communities that value diversity, equity and fairness,” NMCUSD Superintendent Matt Turkie said in a statement. “Schools are where children of all races and backgrounds come together to learn. Keeping our community whole is critical for the future of our students.”

MCOE Trustee John McPherson, who chaired the county office’s committee on district lines, told the state board this petition was one of the most contentious territory transfers in his 12 years on the board. “I’m very confident the county committee went through the process correctly,” McPherson said.

NMCUSD opposed the transfer, while LUSD supported it and SUHSD remained neutral. Daniel Stonebloom, principal/superintendent at Lagunita, says the change was for safety reasons since it is easier and faster for residents from the neighborhood to attend school at Lagunita.

The transfer would have been small in size, less than 1 percent of NMCUSD’s assessed value.

“How much is OK to take from a school district that already doesn’t have enough?” David Saldani, NMCUSD’s attorney, told the state board. Saldani described the transfer as a “developer’s move” to help sell the rest of the parcels in the development (10 of 13 are already developed).

NMCUSD has over 4,400 students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade enrolled. Over 90 percent of students are Latinx, including many bilingual students and about 200 Mixteco-speaking students. Most are low-income and nearly 30 percent have unstable housing.

Opponents of the boundary change noted it could have the effect of segregating the district even further. “The proposed transfer is a social justice issue. A small group of wealthy individuals believe that it is not a big deal to steal from our school district. Our staff and families disagree,” Antonio Garcia, assistant superintendent at NMCUSD, told the state board.

Lagunita is a small district with only 61 students this school year; most are white (52 percent) and 50 percent are transfers from other districts (half of the transfers come from NMCUSD).