Jack Duran: Grindstone Rancheria finally gets a seat at table

After being ignored for nearly six decades the Grindstone Indian Rancheria, located in Glenn County, California, will receive its own representative on the Stony Creek Joint Unified School District Board of Education in Elk Creek, California. On February 25, 2014 the District adopted a tentative District map that includes a member designated to the Tribe on the School District’s Board of Education. As a result of a long in coming redistricting of the school district’s boundaries, which includes the Grindstone Rancheria, District boundary lines now include a district that encompasses the Tribe’s Rancheria, providing the Tribe and its membership its own representative.

Redistricting is the process whereby a school district’s representation boundaries are adjusted to reflect its population by the County Board of Education. Redistricting, as required by the California State Board of Education, requires that the School district boundaries be reviewed, at a minimum, every 10 years, in conjunction with the United States Census, to ensure that district members receive equal voting opportunities. The County Board of Education can implement recommendations to enlarge, and eliminate, boundaries to provide for equal voting opportunities. The California Voting Rights Act and established legal precedent, such as Thornberg v. Gringles 478 U.S. 30 (1986), also require that the redistricting not result in the disenfranchisement or dilution minority group voting rights.