Action Needed: Support a Clear Redistricting Process
Your voice--and public comment--is needed today!
Friends,
This is late notice but I hope you will take just a few minutes to express your support for a proposal that will be considered at this evening’s school board meeting and is critical in our efforts to encourage the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to adopt a fair map.
Dawn Collins, the Vice President of the Board, placed an item on the agenda which asks the School Board to adopt a clear process for the selection of a single map at the March 30th meeting and stipulates that the single map approved by the board would be ratified at a later date following a period of time for public inspection and public comment.
You can read Vice President Collins’ memo here: Agenda Item J6 Memo
Collins’ proposed process is how it is supposed to work! Currently the School Board is scheduled to consider 19 maps, select one, and ratify it all during the special meeting on March 30th. Attempting to consider 19 maps in one meeting is a recipe for mayhem and appears to be in violation of state statute.
In my last post, Thirteen Ways of Looking at Redistricting, I discussed the significance of Revised Statute 17:58.2.
Revised Statute 17§58.2. East Baton Rouge Parish School Board; reapportionment; election districts; terms
C. Prior to final adoption of the apportionment plan required above or any future alteration, change or rearrangement of school board election districts, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board shall order a public hearing on the proposed plan, alteration, change or rearrangement and shall cause to be published in a newspaper published within the parish at least twenty (20) days prior to the date of such hearing, the time and place thereof, a general summary and map of the proposed plan and the times and places where copies of the proposed plan are available for public inspection.
I’m not an attorney, but the language of this statute appears to indicate that the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board must order a public hearing on a single plan—not 19 plans—after it has been made available for public inspection. Vice President Collins’ proposal outlines a process that abides by this statute.
The agenda item is J6. You can read Vice President Collins’ memo here: Agenda Item J6 Memo
You can make a public comment here: Board Comment, J6 Redistricting Process
Your message can be succinct:
Please support the proposal introduced by Madam Vice President Dawn Chanet Collins, which appears on the agenda for the March 17th meeting as item J6. I ask the board to adopt the proposal, which delineates a clear process to approve a single map at the March 30th meeting and stipulates the single map approved by the board will be made available for public inspection and ratified at a special meeting to be held at a later date (May 5th).
I ask that you vote to adopt this process.
Thank you for reading! Thank you for taking action!