G'ville B.O.E. looks at different path

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville School Board members concerned with redistricting met with their attorney Tuesday and discussed taking a different path to redrawing district lines.

That different path they discussed during a luncheon retreat downtown was local legislative, rather than city council's home rule approval of new district lines.Attorney Phil Hartley explained that was the more conservative path for board members, who run for election in their districts, rather than at large like council members.

"The Board of Education is a different government entity from the City Council, Hartley said. "The voting districts from which board members are elected were originally created by the General Assembly. They are the same districts but they are called by different names and they were created separately."

Hartley said legally the districts are separate and distinct and the state legislature clearly as the authority to change voting lines for the school district elections and added that is the safest approach to take.

"That does not mean they can't be the same," Hartley added. "The lines may stay the same and probably will but they would not have to."

The fact that school board members draw votes from their districts and council members run city wide could make a an important difference.

"It's a difference politically, it's a difference to the voters frankly in that they're voting for a specific person on the Board of Education from their area," Hartley said. "So it's very important to the voters as to what their choices are going to be."

The City Council and the School Board would have different time lines for redistricting approval. Under Home Rule, Council wants the lines redrawn before the November elections, even though the Justice Department would not have them approved in time. That means School Board and City Council candidates will run for election under the current redistricting map with new district lines taking effect the first of the year.

"From the Board of Education's point of view, they can wait until next year's General Assembly to get it done," Hartley said. "The City Council has a different time line and we respect that and we're going to work with them as closely as possible."

School Board member David Syfan said the board has a different perspective on district lines because of district versus at large election.

"The make-up of their districts is not as important to them because everybody gets to vote for them," Syfan said. "For the School Board the district lines are more important to us because only the people in our district can vote for us. It forces the School Board to pay more attention to those district lines and be sure that the districts make good common sense and are drawn according to boundaries of interest."

Syfan said he sees a problem with changes in the proposed district lines.

"For example, my district (District 1) has people out on Thompson Bridge Road and now under the proposed map I also have people out on Dawsonville Highway, so there are two very different communities and arguably they may have different community interests."

Syfan said he wants the districts to represent common communities and common boundaries.

Syfan added that the safe way to avoid a legal challenge is for the School Board to get legislative, rather than City Council home rule approval of new district lines.

"The safe thing to do is to have the local legislative delegation pass a local act that creates our districts," according to Syfan. "It's unclear under the home rule power whether the City Council can do it for the School Board."

Syfan,however,wants school board districts and council wards to be the same if possible.

"We want to communicate with them and talk to them and see if we can come to a mutual understanding and agreement on those district lines," he said.