OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Though one of many shortest board conferences in a while, the Oklahoma Metropolis Public Faculties Board of Training adopted two key procedural adjustments that can have a long-lasting influence on the enterprise of the board.
One clarified what weight an abstention would have in a Board vote and the opposite was to set requirements for a way the district would transfer ahead on the Decennial redistricting course of for Board member election districts.
Redistricting
As soon as the U.S. Census Bureau establishes the brand new Census counts, OKCPS might want to undergo a redistricting course of similar to different governmental entities.
It’s not clear how redistricting occurred within the district ten years in the past after the final Census, however this Board selected some specific principals that the Redistricting Committee – but to be shaped – will likely be anticipated to comply with.
Key parts of the adopted decision on redistricting had been:
“If board member voting boundaries change due to census outcomes, these adjustments will think about:
• Districts with equal inhabitants
• Honest, equitable illustration of all populations
• Compactness of a district”
Right here’s how the newly-adopted coverage buildings the redistricting course of:
- The Board will type a Redistricting Committee
- Every Board member will get to nominate one OKCPS constituent to the committee
- The Board Chair will appoint which Board members will likely be on the committee
- The Board Chair will select the chair of the committee
- Superintendent McDaniel will appoint administration members to advise the committee
- The committee will solicit enter from skilled researchers and the neighborhood
The brand new insurance policies are supposed to present the general public that there’s a clear intent to maneuver away from outdated Gerrymandering practices the place districts in any respect ranges of presidency had been drawn with the intent to create a sure outcome apart from representing all voters.
So, … each faculty district, each metropolis, everyone’s obtained to redistrict,” Jacobs instructed us. “And, we didn’t have a coverage on it. And, I don’t suppose that there are various districts that do. And board coverage is actually a time for the board to say these are our values as a district.”
Jacobs stated that in each redistricting effort there are exterior pursuits that attempt to push the method to return out with a specific outcome. However, the Coverage Committee needed it to be identified what the core requirements can be as soon as the method can transfer ahead.
“It was a great dialog throughout the Coverage Committee. And, I believe what we’ve give you are good objectives,” stated Jacobs.
Board Chair Paula Lewis weighed in on how necessary transparency of the method is to the general public.
“If we’re gonna actually run primarily based on, you realize, being a neighborhood board and a public board that does state {dollars}, no matter whether or not children are in our district or not, everyone’s state {dollars} involves us [from] this space, and they should see how we come to those selections,” stated Lewis.
“I believe it permits us to be extra of a staff with the district,” Lewis instructed us. “It simply leaves much less room for folks to have the ability to are available in and suppose they’ll sort of pull off one board member … as a result of we’ve all agreed that is the place we’re shifting.”
Abstentions
The adoption of a procedural clarification about how an abstention ought to rely in a vote of the board was determined in an try to move off battle sooner or later over the which means of votes on the Board.
Beforehand, board coverage was written in an unclear approach the place an abstention counted as a no vote as a result of it nonetheless counted as a vote within the whole and it was not a vote in favor.
In recent times abstaining from specific votes turned extra extensively used particularly by former Board member Charles Henry. The observe uncovered the difficulty of whether or not somebody may abstain and create a useful no vote, then later, deny voting towards a measure.
Now, after Monday’s vote, an abstention doesn’t rely within the vote whole. It’s as if the one abstaining was not current.
Earlier than the vote, recently-elected District 1 Board Member Carol Thompson argued for the concept of excluding abstentions from the rely. She stated that voters elect board members to return to board conferences and make selections to vote for or towards an thought, not abstain.
“The one motive for an abstention is that if there’s a battle of curiosity,” stated Thompson.
After the assembly, Board District 3 member Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs who chairs the Coverage Committee talked with Free Press about proposals that got here out of the Coverage Committee which she chairs.
She agreed with Thompson’s feedback made in the course of the assembly and was glad the Board determined in favor of the clarification.
“There are both conflicts of curiosity, or there may very well be the looks of impropriety, the place you don’t need somebody to say, effectively, that particular person simply voted that approach, as a result of that’s their child’s faculty,” Jacobs stated.
“However, everyone ought to be voting the remainder of the time, similar to Carol stated, however you want to have the ability to take your self out and that not punish the movement,” she stated.
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Final Up to date July 19, 2023, 9:01 PM by Brett Dickerson – Editor
The put up OKCPS Board of Ed decides transparent Board seat redistricting standards appeared first on Oklahoma City Free Press.
