I haven't quite figured out exactly how they decide where to draw the district lines, but I did find some comments on the WCPSS website about how the lines are redrawn. From here
ATTORNEY BRIEFS BOARD ON REDISTRICTING
Attorney Michael Crowell talked to the Board of Education at its Monday (March 19) meeting about redistricting the Board of Education seats. Crowell told the Board after each federal census, election districts must be redrawn to meet the standard of one person, one vote. Crowell said that means the districts must not differ in population by more than ten percent. Crowell noted that there is no secret that population growth over the last ten years has shifted to the county's west. He said computer software will help advise on changes that need to be made. He offered a series of guidelines for use in redistricting based on the 1990 redistricting.
· To comply with one-person, one-vote, no district should be more than five percent above or below the population of the ideal-size district.
· Districts should not split precincts.
· Each district should retain their present configuration to the extent feasible.
· Districts should be reasonably compact.
· Outside Raleigh and Cary, incorporated municipalities should not be split.
· The area of concentrated African-American population centered in Southeast Raleigh should not be divided unnecessarily.
· To avoid questions about adequate representation, new boundaries should not be drawn to take incumbents out of their districts.
· In analyzing district population balance, political party registration should not be taken into account.
· Areas that expect the greatest population growth should have districts with the lowest population, and areas that expect lower growth should have districts with the greatest population.
Board chairman Bill Fletcher said the public would be offered the opportunity to comment on the guidelines in the public hearing at the April 2 board meeting.
I also found a brief follow up on how the districts were adjusted. From here
BOARD APPROVES REDISTRICTING
A new redistricting plan for Wake school board seats was approved by the Board of Education at its Tuesday night meeting (May 29). The board used data from the 2000 Census and advice from its legal staff to draw districts equal in population. The nine districts had to include between 66,723 and 73,249 voters to meet legal requirements. Growth in the past decade has occurred in western and Southwest Wake, and those two districts shrunk. Central and Southeast Raleigh had the least growth. Those districts grew. Fuquay-Varina and Willow Springs moved from District 8 in Southwest Wake to District 2, which now primarily consists of Garner. Some precincts in South Raleigh shifted from District 2 to District 4.
I was not able to find current population numbers for each district, but I did take a look at how many students are in each district. While its not an accurate look at district representation, I found it interesting nonetheless. If nothing else, I think it gives us an additional criteria to consider when redrawing the district lines in 2010: number of students in each district should be more equal. Eleanor Goattee represents less than half as many students as some of her colleagues, but her vote carries the same weight.
3 comments:
There are two issues with "Equal Representation" - the first, percentage of enrolled population represented is well covered in your article. The second is that WCPSS frequently assigns students to base schools outside of their Districts. Many BOE members are well known for looking out for "their" District. So, who represents the families assigned to schools outside their voting District? Forget about "Equal Representation": this policy amounts to "No Representation". Two solutions: 1) Keep student assignment within the same District and only cross Districts via voluntary Magnet or YR programs or 2) allow Nodes assigned to different Districts to be able to vote accordingly.
You are very correct and that's a major oversight on my part. If you've got more than one kid its very possible to be represented by 3 or more BOE members. For instance, in Bedford (Carol Parker's district 3) there was a node that up until this year was assigned to Lynn Rd Elem which is Beverley Clark's district and to Wake Forest-Rolesville MS in Lori Millberg's district. Who DOES represent a family in that case?
How can parents who are in the situations you both describe make a difference in the Oct. '08 election? I'm guessing they should get involved in each District's elections but am sure they'd be wondering to what end?
Post a Comment