A 90-day public comment period on the potential trustee area boundaries and map for the proposed new district map for the Board of Trustees, and only one member of the community actually responded.

“…Finally, I also believe that at-large trustees generally provide more cohesive governance, and there is greater discord with by district trustees; partisan governance allows for power and personalities to prevail instead of allowing the right decision to be made for the broader good,” wrote district employee Linda da Silva.

Public input is important, especially when an issue like this is brought up by the district, as it could change the way which members of the board are chosen in the future and only one person actually responded. This is the kind of issue that residents and students of the district should care about and pay attention to, because it can and will impact them.

The lack of any other public input is disheartening to say the least, considering that this actually changes which members of the district board are elected because it shows that the public and students have little or no interest on an issue that will impact them.

If you don’t know what it is, then at-large elections are where candidates campaign across the whole district and aren’t limited to constituents living in the district that they wish to represent, while in “by-district” campaigning, candidates are limited to directly campaigning to those living in the districts that they wish to represent and campaign for a position on the Board of Trustees.

In a meeting on Mar. 13, Trustee Richard Holober mentioned that there wasn’t enough public interest. Maybe he’s right; maybe he’s not, but the fact remains is that there was little public input during the 90 day public comment period, is this part of a trend or something else?

It’s not a trend, as even having a website only these days isn’t enough to draw people to your website and make them aware of whatever your organization is doing. Social media is the key to increasing your followers and this especially important in the case of an organization like the San Mateo County Community College District that set policies for all Skyline College and her sister colleges, CSM and Canada College.

So the district could make its present felt more on social media, which the current generation uses for everything from entertainment to professorial pursuits. While students and members of the community should make the effort to be involved in these kinds of events where the board’s actions could very well impact the students and the communities of San Mateo.