Wednesday, December 19, 2001
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Wednesday, December 19, 2001 |
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School board approves new voting districts By MONROE
ROARK
Voting districts for the Fayette County Board of Education for the coming decade cleared their first hurdle toward ultimate approval Monday night. The board itself approved the new districts, which changed little from the previous map, unanimously at its regular meeting. The districts must now be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, Superintendent John DeCotis said. New districts must be approved every ten years, after each new federal census. The new map does not affect any sitting board member. Under the county's current system, board members are elected at-large by the entire county but must live in the posts they represent. The number of board members will remain unchanged at five. There has been talk in the community of increasing that number, possibly to seven, but the board has not officially discussed that issue. To change the number of members on the board or the way they are elected, such as electing them wholly within their districts, would first require action by the Georgia General Assembly and then a countywide referendum during a state election year (even-numbered year), DeCotis said. Using a population figure of 91,263 for the county, the five districts were divided as follows: Post 1, 18,214 total population, 1,119 (6.14 percent) black, 530 (2.91 percent) Hispanic or Latino. Post 2, 17,585 total population, 1,246 (7.09 percent) black, 358 (2.04 percent) Hispanic or Latino. Post 3, 18,320 total population, 932 (5.09 percent) black, 746 (4.07 percent) Hispanic or Latino. Post 4, 19,051 total population, 2,494 (13.09 percent) black, 483 (2.54 percent) Hispanic or Latino. Post 5, 18,093 total population, 4,674 (25.83 percent) black, 465 (2.57 percent) Hispanic or Latino. Post 4 gained 798 in total population, while Post 3 gained 67. Post 2 saw a drop of 668, while Post 5 lost 160 and Post 1 fell by 39.
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