Leaders mulling district maps

School board members agreed to have Superintendent Dr. Allen McCannon contact the county commissioners to see how they plan to act on redistricting.

However, it may be a couple of weeks before the BOC can offer anything definitive to the school board. With a couple of commissioners out of town during stretches of July, the BOC won’t meet on redistricting again until July 18 at 9 a.m. in the county government complex.
Commissioner Mike Youngblood recently suggested that the BOC adopt the school board district maps. But commissioner John Pethel suggested that the board adopt one of the three tweaks to the commissioners’ current maps.

Madison County’s total population — when split five ways (for five districts) — equals 5,624. Each district in the county must be within one percent of that population figure.

The highest population growth for both school board and BOC maps was in districts 3 and 5 over the past decade, meaning those two districts will have a slightly smaller geographic area when the maps are redrawn.

The Georgia General Assembly has scheduled a special session for August to tackle redistricting. New county district proposals are expected to be approved at that time. Those maps will then be reviewed by the federal Justice Department before being used in the 2012 elections.