Friday, June 22,
2001
|
|
|
New school board districts being drawn By JOHN
THOMPSON
A possible outcome of the new U.S. Census figures is that Fulton County's Board of Education could increase from seven to nine members That's one of the scenarios the board is examining as it starts work on reapportioning the population into new voting disticts. The board has scheduled a tentative meeting June 26 at 5 p.m. at the Celeveland Avenue Administrative Center to discuss the district lines. School officials said that unlike the city of Atlanta, the Fulton County School District does not have the power to redraw its own voting district lines. It must look to the Georgia General Assembly to do so. The ideal district size for a seven-member board is 61,330. Each district must be within plus or minus 5 percent of the ideal size. Because of the distribution of the population, officials said, it is not possible to achieve this without sharing a district between the north and south part of the school system. While the law states that non-contiguous districts are not allowable, Linda Meggers of the Reapportionment Office said Fulton's case would be considered an exception, because the school system boundaries are not contiguous and therefore a shared district does not violate the intent of the law. The only scenario in which a shared district is not necessary would be to expand the school board from seven to nine members, six north and three south. So far, the board is leaning toward keeping seven members, but no final plan has emerged. Any plan approved by the board and enacted by the General Assembly must comply with the federal Voting Rights Act and with the United States and Georgia constitutions. In drawing up the new districts, the board will look at several issues: Each voting district should be drawn to achieve substantial equality of population among the seven districts. The total population deviation for the entire plan should not exceed 10 percent. Each voting district should approach the ideal district size as nearly as is practical. As a general rule, voting districts must be composed of contiguous geography. In light of the School District's unique geographic configuration, a district combining noncontiguous parts of north and south county would be allowed if mathematically necessary. Voting districts should be geographically compact. District lines may be drawn to respect political subdivision lines and natural/artificial geographic boundaries. District lines may be drawn in a manner that maintains communities of common interest. Partisan political considerations and voting behavior may be taken into account. Contests between incumbents may be avoided. Core existing districts may be preserved when they remain consistent with the ideal district size. Race cannot be the predominant factor motivating redistricting decisions. The board may naturally be aware of race as one of several demographic factors, but traditional redistricting principles should not be subordinated to race. If race is the predominant factor in redistricting, there will be a violation of equal protection provisions in the Constitution.
Back to South Fulton News Home Page | Back to the top of the page |