School board tentatively approves new district lines

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 12, 2012 12:04 p.m. (0)

Every one of the 12 school board districts will change – those in the northern and southern ends of the county more drastically than the others – under a redistricting plan school board members gave tentative approval on Tuesday.

It is unknown right now how many Greenville County residents will find themselves living in a different school board district under one of the two plans developed by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board for consideration by school trustees, said Roger Meek, board chairman.

“We know the area, we just don’t know the people right now,” he said.

The board will solicit public comment at its Jan. 23 meeting, Meek said.

Maps are available at the school district office lobby and online for public review, board member Tommie Reece said.

Once the redistricting plan receives final approval from the school board, it must also be approved by the South Carolina legislature before being sent to the U.S. Justice Department for a final OK.

Reece said she doesn’t expect any problem with the plan receiving Justice Department approval because it meets all the legal requirements and kept both of the district’s minority majority districts although Reece said it makes for some “strange lines.”

“None of us are happy or thrilled with the changes, but we’re confident we did the best we can given the legal requirements we had to meet,” Reece said.

The new districts will take effect for the 2012 elections, when all of the odd-numbered districts will be up for grabs.

Filing for the seats will be held in August. Since school board seats are non-partisan, there is no primary.

The redistricting does not affect schools to which students are assigned to attend, only which school board member residents of the district elect.

The lines were redrawn to reflect demographic changes in the county since the 2000 census.

The district’s two black majority districts – District 23 and 25 – had lost population over the last decade, while districts in the Golden Strip grew the most.

The plan given initial approval by the board keeps each board member in the same district.

Under the proposal, Meek’s district, District 26, begins above the Northwest Crescent Child Development Center and Cherrydale Elementary and runs all the way down to Fork Shoals, sometimes narrowing down to a pencil-thin strip of land on Anderson Road near Carolina High and Academy to keep the western and southern parts of the district connected to each other.

Reece’s district, District 17, now splits the northern third of the county with District 19, represented by Debi Bush.

District 24, represented by Megan Hickerson, includes Gower and parts of Mauldin, but doesn’t include the area near Mauldin High.

District 25, one of the minority district seats now held by Leola Robinson-Simpson, who will not seek re-election, spans from an area near Carolina High, the old Baker’s Chapel Elementary and down through Piedmont past Woodmont High.