Article reposted from September 20, 2011
— A lively band of Elkmont residents pushed Monday for further revisions to the Limestone County school board district voting map. However, the latest attempt at revising the map could pit two existing school board members against one another in an upcoming election.
About 25 Elkmont residents attended the 5 p.m. work session at the Central Office in Athens. They wanted territory currently assigned to proposed District 4 to be moved to proposed District 3, which was redrawn to create a separate district for Elkmont residents. In the last election in 2010, school board members in Districts 4 and 5 divided the Elkmont area.
When it came time to redraw the lines this year, Elkmont resident John Carter, serving as a spokesman for other residents, asked the board to consider creating a separate district for Elkmont. Some residents there believe it is difficult for an Elkmont resident to be elected to the board because of how the lines were drawn.
The demographer the school board hired to redraw the map had tried to accommodate the group. However, they asked the board Monday to tweak the map a little more. They want the board to move a section of proposed District 3 containing the Owens community to District 4 in exchange for more land north of Elkmont that is currently in District 4. After some discussion and pressure from Elkmont residents, the board agreed to try to give a piece of proposed District 3 extending from Easter Ferry west to Nelson Road, north to Section Line Road and south to the city limits of Athens back to District 4 in exchange for the property north of Elkmont. The question is whether it can be done without moving District 3 board member Marty Adams into District 4. Although Adams lives east of Easter Ferry Road — outside of the area the board is trying to move to District 4 — redrawing is done by census blocks, which means it could be difficult for the demographer to slice off a chunk of land precisely along that roadway.
The demographer will redraw the lines for the fifth time and get a map to Elkmont group before a meeting Monday, during which to board hopes to finalize the map. That meeting, which was to be Friday, has been moved to 7 a.m. Monday at the old City Hall council chambers. Board members are required to redraw voting district lines every 10 years in order to ensure equal representation for residents. They use current census figure to ensure that each of the seven school board districts have the same number of residents, plus or minus 5 percent.
Article reposted from September 20, 2011
Source: Jean Cole
We
will be electing the first school board representative for the newly
formed Elkmont District this fall. Candidates will be registering to
run for the position during the next month. Currently, Marty Adams
(West Limestone family) is our representative. He has indicated that he is interested in throwing his hat in the ring for the upcoming election.
Hill Spirit has gotten some questions about how the new district came
about so this series of articles will be reposted so those questions can
answered. There are about six of them so look for one each day. If you missed one, look in the list of posts at the bottom of the blog.
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