The Wake County school board is one step closer to redistricting for this fall\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
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The Shanahan Law Group is drawing up the new board member district maps, and presented a draft to the school board this week.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Constitution requires redistricting every 10 years after the census. Districts within each governing body should be more or less equal with a 5-percent deviation up or down.<\/p>\n
Wake County\u2019s huge population growth during the last decade posed a challenge for the law firm. The number of residents in the county flew from 627,846 in the year 2000 to 900,993 in 2010 \u2014 an increase of 43.5 percent.<\/p>\n
With nine districts, the Wake County Board of Education should have districts of about 100,000 people each.<\/p>\n
The consultants presented a map that keeps the deviation in each district to no more than 1 percent by taking constituents from booming Districts 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 and giving voters to Districts 4, 5, 6, and 9. The map splits seven voter precincts, a move that affects all districts.<\/p>\n
Other board-mandated criteria that the law firm followed include keeping each district as compact as possible, respecting municipality boundaries and not taking board incumbents out of their districts.<\/p>\n
One criterion adopted by the board Feb. 15 but not directly addressed by the board Tuesday was to \u201cconsider redistricting plans that would increase minority representation on the Board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tedesco, well known as a principal proponent of killing the old socioeconomic diversity policy, questioned whether the new map \u201cdiluted\u201d or \u201cpacked\u201d minority representation in districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach district pretty much retained its characteristics,\u201d said Kieran Shanahan, principal attorney for the law firm.<\/p>\n
District 4, represented by Keith Sutton, is the only district with a majority of minority voters, with about 53 percent of residents as members of minority groups.<\/p>\n
Sutton, the only minority member on the board, expressed concern that Shanahan\u2019s providing only one map option might be inadequate.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is that the public may feel as though, unintentionally, we\u2019re going behind closed doors with preconceived ideas as opposed to options,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When pressed by Tedesco, Shanahan expressed confidence that the map would hold up in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that we have made it bulletproof,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Board attorney Ann Majestic agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing are factors that are neutral moves,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re not slanted to give one identifiable group less voting power than another.\u201d<\/p>\n