Richland One seeking public input on redrawing boundaries of school board single-member voting districts
February 8, 2016
Richland County School District One is currently redrawing the boundary lines for the school board’s four single-member voting districts.
The seven members of the Richland County School District One Board of School Commissioners are elected in a mixed system. Three commissioners are elected at-large and four commissioners are elected from single-member districts. Redistricting is required following the completion of a 10-year census in order to ensure that the voting districts are in compliance with certain federal and state requirements. Please note that this boundary movement does not affect attendance zone boundaries for any school within Richland County School District One.
When the boundary lines are redrawn, each voting district should have, to the extent possible, a population which is within a 10-percentage deviation of the other voting districts. This is necessary to adhere to the “one-person-one vote” principle required by the United States Constitution and the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. To adhere to these federal requirements, the redistricting plan must ensure that the voting strength of racial and ethnic minority groups is not diluted. In South Carolina, we seek to follow traditional redistricting principles as guidance in redrawing district lines.
Examples of such traditional redistricting principles would include that:
- districts be compact and contiguous;
- district boundaries follow natural, man‐made or political geographic boundaries (like mountain ridges, roads, or county or municipal lines or precinct boundaries);
- cores of existing districts be maintained in order to allow for a continuation of similar representation; or
- communities of interest be kept together in the same district.
In completing the redistricting process, the School Board is inviting public comment on the plans proposed by the Richland County Delegation of the South Carolina General Assembly. The Richland County Delegation has proposed two plans: Plans 1 and Plan 2. The School Board also has proposed for public comment Plan 2b, which has a slight variation of Plan 2, in that it maintains the integrity of the existing voting precincts.
Plan 1 may present challenges in its treatment of the Lower Richland Area; Plan 2 is largely consistent with the current plan in effect; and Plan 2b is a largely consistent with the current plan in effect, without splitting voting district precincts. The three plans are posted on the district’s website (www.richlandone.org).
The public is encouraged to review Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 2b and provide input to School Board members in writing or during one of the public hearing sessions, which are scheduled for February 9, 2016 at the Stevenson Administration Building, 1616 Richland Street, Room 102, and for February 23, 2016 at Horrell Hill Elementary School, 517 Horrell Hill Road, Hopkins, SC 29061. Hearings at both locations will be held from 5:15 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. The School Board will vote on a final plan at its February 23, 2016 School Board meeting.
Comments should be sent to Eva Wilson, Special Assistant to the Board of School Commissioners, at [email protected].
