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Guest View: Will our leaders fight for Gavilan’s future?

Gavilan College’s broken promises for a San Benito Education Center amount to a watershed event for our future. The county’s political and community leadership have a critical decision to make. Are they going to fight to force Gavilan College to restore commitment of the $108 million, 2004 Measure E bond, or are they going to slink away and write off decades of the county’s future and the futures of many of its residents who must have more educational opportunities closer to home?

School employee from Hollister accused of sexual assault

Kinsella’s departure provokes variety of responses

With the retirement of longtime Gavilan College Superintendent Steve Kinsella set for June, San Benito County trustees expect to remember the man for a legacy of good financial leadership.

Gavilan’s new Coyote Valley campus set to open in Fall 2016

A new Gavilan College campus in south San Jose came a couple of steps closer to becoming a reality Oct. 13 as the governing body unanimously approved more than $4.5 million in contracts to begin site grading, soil inspection and the purchase of five modular buildings.

Gavilan President Kinsella announces retirement

Gavilan College President Steve Kinsella announced plans to retire near the end of June 2016, according to an email from the college board chairman.

LULAC groups reject Gavilan election maps

Latino voting rights advocates have challenged a trio of draft plans for new voting districts drawn by Gavilan College as it carefully makes a historic switch to by-district elections for the board of trustees.

The plans have been the subject of discussion at community meetings hosted by the district in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister, but most have been poorly attended and in one case no one showed up at a Morgan Hill meeting.

Now a fourth plan has emerged, presented by Latino voting rights advocates and officially accepted by school trustees as a legitimate option for discussion.

The San Benito County and Gilroy chapters of the League of United Latin American Citizens with the help of the nationally influential Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund introduced the plan.

“I found the LULAC presentation very interesting,” said Gavilan Board Chairman Walt Glines in a written response to the Dispatch.

“It’s clear the membership put a lot of hard work into the process. In some respects it was different than what our demographer initially presented,” he said.

The demographer, Jeanne G. Gobalet, of Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research, Inc. of Saratoga, is the school’s primary consultant on the drawing of new trustee districts that will ensure equal and fair representation for all groups.

“We scheduled the meetings to get feedback from the community. The LULAC response is very much a part of that feedback. That was how the process was designed to work. Trustees and the demographer listened and heard. We continue to listen and hear,” Glines wrote.

The college has moved to adopt the new system as more and more lawsuits or threats of suits have been filed by MALDEF and others against schools, colleges and cities to force compliance with voting laws designed to protect the rights of minorities and other underrepresented groups.

College officials said they preferred to be proactive in the matter rather than face expensive lawsuits that would drain financial resources.

Since the early 1900s, the college has held at-large elections, meaning no matter which geographic area a candidate hailed from in the college district’s 27,000 square miles from San Benito to south Santa Clara County, everyone could vote for every candidate.

Under the new system, slated to be in place next year, candidates from seven districts will run only in their home district and only residents of that district can cast votes for that seat.

In analyzing and comparing the four plans, Gobalet identified 25 areas of “significant differences” among the plans, including five in a criterion required by law: population equality and the number of Hispanic-majority trustee areas.

Cesar Flores, president of the San Benito LULAC chapter said one of the group’s main critiques of the college’s three proposed maps is the splitting up of communities with historic ties.

“We didn’t care for that and with the help of MALDEF we drew our own map, which we felt was more inclusive of our community.”

College Volleyball: United Rams prep for season

GILROY—The camaraderie in the Gavilan College gym Tuesday was undeniable. After each drill, the Rams volleyball players huddled together to acknowledge each other's accomplishments, always ending with a “Go Rams” chant before breaking. That, head coach Kevin Kramer said, is what an entire summer of bonding does for a team.

Donors rally to raise funds for rider’s funeral

In the days since Gilroy resident Doug Williams, 23, was found dead in the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area after a collision with a tree, the community has rallied to pay for the cost of his funeral.

Gavilan adopts new name for student group

Gavilan College board Tuesday voted to change the ASB name to Associated Students of Gavilan College (ASGC), a name that the majority of students chose in a survey in the fall of 2014.

Updated: Coroner IDs victims in plane crash near Pacheco Pass

The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office confirmed the identities of the victims in a weekend airplane crash near Pacheco Pass.

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