The Bolivar Commercial Internet Edition -
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Published on: 9/13/2003
Last Visited: 9/13/2003
The law requires that every 10 years the school district must compare the current boundaries with new census information, according to School Board Attorney Bill Adams.
School board districts should be roughly equal in size, said Adams, and if there's a deviation, the lines must be redrawn.
"People need to understand this had nothing to do with where children go to school," he said.
The new boundaries will only "change the area where people live who elect a trustee.There are currently five trustees on the Cleveland School Board: each one is elected from a different ward," explained Adams.
The new plans do not put two incumbents in the same district, said Adams.
"The new boundaries do not change the term of any sitting trustee, said Adams."It will only take effect in the next election (in November)."
"The Cleveland School District looked at the data and its current lines," and determined that it was necessary to redo the current boundaries, said Adams.
The school district divides the five wards according to the total census population.The ideal population for each district, according to the total number of people who reside within the school district, would be 4,224.4 people.
Adams said the federal Voting Rights Act, "One Man, One Vote," demands the district redraw its lines if any one district exceeds that ideal population to a certain percentage.
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"The plan was adopted, but now it must be sent to the Department of Justice for clearance under the Voting Rights Act," said Adams.
"We are in the process of putting together the full submission to the Justice Department," he said.
Adams said the previous plans had some hard-to-read boundaries, including one which followed a power line instead of a road and several with jagged edges.
"I believe this plan has fewer jagged edges that are difficult for people to recognize, which avoids confusion when it comes time to vote for board members," he said.
Although every district will have some slight alterations, only two have any major changes.
"These are fairly small changes in terms of blocks," said Adams.
Adams said that District 3 has the biggest change in terms of moving boundaries.
District 1 formerly included the area west of Crosby Road, south of Township Road and north of Yale Street.This area is now included in District 3.
"It's a large land area, but it doesn't really involve that many people," Adams said of the change.
The second biggest change removes an area from District 3 and puts it in District 4.
Adams said that once the new lines are approved by the Justice Department, the school district will create new maps to be published and distributed to the public.