Better Tahoma Board Director Maps
by Jenn Askew
If you, like me, have spent hours squinting at the Tahoma school district School Board Director Boundary Maps, you know how difficult they are to read. There are very few streets listed in some places, while in others you can barely see the boundaries under the writing. The maps are also heavy PDFs that are not searchable. The actual description of the maps can help in spots, but it’s not a simple task. After a friend sent me a list of addresses to check, of folks she was hoping could apply for the open board seat (more on that below), I finally had enough and decided to make better maps!
I did these on Open Street Map, and I’m a total newb. If you have tips to make this more intuitive, please let me know.
How it works:
- Go to OpenStreetMap.org, and click search. On mobile, you need to open the menu on the top right to access the search bar.
- Enter your address and hit enter or Go.
- On the immediate search results, listed in that block of text will be Tahoma School District – Director District (number). Whatever number is displayed is your director district!
Next day change – the searching feature no longer works, so you’ll just have to use the map and zoom into your address. This is explained below:You don’t need to view the districts individually – the search option is the easiest way to figure out where an address lies – but you can if you want to. You can see all five of the districts in the pics below and on Open Street Map at the following links:
Director District 1
Director District 2
Director District 3
Director District 4
Director District 5
When the searching featured worked: I did an example search, on my phone. I searched for Lake Wilderness Elementary School – which you can search for by address or by name – which happens to be in director district number one. That district has an open seat, after Haley Pendergraft resigned, and applications are open now. You have until this Friday, Oct 6th, at 11:59pm to apply. (There were actually two resignations, but the other potentially open seat, number three, won’t be determined until after the November election. If Malia Hollowell wins the election she’ll have to decide if she wants to stay on or resign permanently.) Here are the instructions with pictures:
Go to OpenStreetMap.org 
On mobile you have to open the menu to access the search bar 
Enter the address you want to search. Click enter or Go. 
The immediate result gives you the district info. I searched for Lake Wilderness Elementary, which is in district 1. 
If you click the result, it brings you to a page with more info but does not contain the director district info.
Disclaimer: I am a human and I am fallible. Please don’t just rely on these maps! Look at the original maps provided by the district (they can usually be found on this page, under Board Director Districts, and the more detailed maps are currently available on this page), and/or contact the district to confirm. Also remember that you can vote in all director districts, as long as you live within the TSD boundaries. You can only run for school board director in the district that you live in.
This article was written by a member of the Tahoma Values Team. Do you have an article, letter to the editor, or statement you would like to publish on our site? Please contact Tahoma Values at TahomaValues@gmail.com
