BY DEREK P. JENSEN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
BY DEREK P. JENSEN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Salt Lake City’s recently redrawn school board map has prompted one newly eligible west-side challenger — and four overall challengers — to compete for the four district seats to be contested in November.
Two of the city’s seven school district boundaries were stretched anew into west-side neighborhoods as part of the redistricting mandated by the 2010 census. That means residents spanning Glendale to Rose Park now have a shot at four west-side seats, albeit not in this year’s election.
The vision, steered by new District 2 City Councilman Kyle LaMalfa, is to expand west-end representation and to diversify the school board. He also hopes the move eventually will give voice to the area’s wide swath of ethnically diverse students — dozens of languages are heard in multiple west-side schools — along with its refugees. LaMalfa sees the recent candidate filings — two challengers are black and two others are west-side activists — as a “strong start.”
“The whole thing had to move west,” he says. “There was no debating that. Really, the crux of the matter was: ‘Should we move downtown [District 4] farther west and District 5 farther west?’ ”
That is precisely what happened. So now, Districts 4 and 5 dip into Poplar Grove and Glendale, joining District 2 and District 1, which encompass Glendale and Rose Park, respectively.
The districts on the ballot in November will be 1, 2, 5 and 7.
In newly realigned District 5, Glendale’s William Palmer, who is black and has kids at Whittier Elementary, will attempt to unseat board Vice Chairwoman Heather Bennett, who lives near 9th and 9th on the east side.
In District 7, Eliot Sykes, who also is black and the architect of the new school board map, is contesting board Chairwoman Kristi Swett.
The only minority now serving on the school board is Alama Uluave, the incumbent in District 2. In a rematch of a one-vote contest, Uluave will face west-side activist Michael Clara, who, if elected, would push the board to put a priority on site-based management.
“The outcome of the election,” Clara says, “will tell us whether there’s better west-side representation.”
The final contest pits District 1 incumbent Amanda Thorderson from Rose Park against Fairpark activist Tiffany Sandberg. The challenger is a graduate of the West Side Leadership Institute and a prominent voice in pushing for the new North Temple viaduct.
The City Council, after the months-long effort of an independent volunteer group, spent weeks settling on a redistricting map that spread students more evenly, recognizing that roughly half the city’s school-age kids live on the west side. The city wanted the new lines established before March’s candidate filing period.
LaMalfa campaigned on a pledge to boost west-end representation, beginning with schools.
“I can check that,” he says. “We did as good as we could have done.”
At that same time, LaMalfa expected more residents to file for the school board races before last month’s deadline.
“The temperature of the caucus meetings — man, those were raucous,” he says. “I’m surprised that didn’t translate to more people coming out for the school board. At least there are no uncontested races.”
djensen@sltrib.com —
Shifts possible on SLC school board
After a redistricting process that extended two Salt Lake City school board district boundaries into the west side, challengers have filed to contest the four seats up for election this November. District 1 and District 2 (both on the west side) are on the ballot along with District 7 and newly extended District 5.