LONG BEACH PENINSULA — The Ocean Beach School District Board of Directors have scheduled a public hearing during its regular meeting next week over proposed redistricting changes to the district’s director boundaries.

The boundaries of OBSD’s five director districts, last revised in 2022 following the release of the 2020 Census, have faced continual criticism from some on the north end of the peninsula over their sprawling size. The new map being proposed by the district, which the board will hear public comment on at its April 24 meeting, would affect the three northernmost director districts.

If approved by the board, the biggest change would be to the boundaries of the Ocean Park-based fifth district, which currently mostly comprises the immediate Ocean Park area but extends as far south as 163rd Place along Pacific Way on the ocean-side of the highway. The fifth district would become much more compact, spanning from Ocean Park south to 202nd Street — just east of the northern tip of Loomis Lake — while also spanning more wholly across the peninsula from east to west.

The boundaries of the other two districts, the first district to the north and the second district to the south, would undergo more modest alterations as a result of the changes if they are approved.

The first district would not extend as south as it currently is, but would pick up a swath of ocean-side land as far south as 260th Place that was previously located in the fifth district. The second district would add the previously mentioned stretch of land along the ocean-side of Pacific Way that had been located within the fifth district, while shedding land northeast of Loomis Lake.

The proposed redistricting changes also call for the renumbering of the five districts. The northernmost first district would remain the same, while the neighboring district to the south, the much-discussed fifth district, would become the second district.

Continuing southward, the second district would be renumbered as the third district, and the third district — comprising mostly of Long Beach and Seaview — would become the fourth district. Finally, the fourth district that comprises Ilwaco, Chinook and the balance of non-peninsula south county that falls within the Ocean Beach School District’s boundaries would be renumbered as the fifth district.

The board is expected to consider adoption of the proposed redistricting changes on May 22, its next regularly scheduled meeting. All school board meetings begin at 5:30 p.m.

In addition to testifying at the public hearing, written comments can be submitted in advance of the meeting. Comments can be emailed to district.secretary@oceanbeachschools.org.

To view the proposed redistricting changes, go to tinyurl.com/obsdredistricting.

District wins FEMA grant

At an April 10 special meeting, board members unanimously voted to authorize OBSD Superintendent Amy Huntley to sign all necessary documents in order to utilize a $210,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The funds will go toward a geotechnical and structural scoping near Long Beach Elementary and Ocean Park Elementary, looking at soils and other conditions to determine whether erecting tsunami evacuation towers in those locations would be feasible. Huntley said the results of the study will help the district when it comes to future planning, as well as the City of Long Beach and Pacific County Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to disaster funds from the Washington State Military Department, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is helping pick up the local share that FEMA requires for recipients of its grants. Huntley said that there will be no direct cost to the district for the work that is being done, and $10,000 of the grant total is earmarked to help OBSD staff manage the grant.