Board unveils redistricting plan
AMITE — The Tangipahoa Parish School Board introduced a working draft of a redistricting plan Tuesday that seeks to bring each district back within 5 percent of its ideal population.
The plan will be published on the School Board’s website, at http://www.tangischools.org, and placed on the board’s Nov. 13 agenda for revision and/or adoption.
The plan must be adopted by the end of the year, said Dannie P. Garrett III, of Redistricting LLC.
According to the 2010 Census, District A is now 14 percent above the ideal population of 13,455 and District H is almost 15 percent below it, Garrett said.
A district’s ideal population is calculated by taking the total parish population as determined by the Census — in this case, 121,097 — and dividing by nine School Board districts.
The working draft presented to board members Tuesday night would include district populations ranging from -4.63 percent to 4.33 percent of the ideal, according to statistics Garrett gave the board.
The plan would also maintain two minority-majority districts, where the majority of the district’s population is composed of residents of a racial minority, Garrett said.
“Although we use total Census population when we draw districts, we’re also sensitive to voting-age population because the Department of Justice will look at whether a district identified as minority-majority has an appropriate level of VAP,” Garrett said. “Y’all don’t really have that issue because both minority districts were in the 60 percent range.”
In other business before the School Board:
100TH ANNIVERSARY: The board recognized the 100th anniversary of Loranger High School.
The school opened in 1912 as a one-room schoolhouse for all grades, board member and Loranger alum Andy Anderson said.
The school has been an integral part of the parish’s education system over the past 100 years, graduating generations of students and making an invaluable contribution to the community, Anderson said.
BOND REFINANCING: The board delayed action on possible refinancing of $4 million in general obligation bonds for the Sumner and Independence districts.
The bids came back with higher interest rates than anticipated, and the district’s bond attorney recommended delaying action until after the national presidential election in the hopes that rates will settle, Superintendent Mark Kolwe said.