New law will require change for school boards
By TOM ALSTROM
USD 398 Superintendent
A new Kansas law signed in May of this year requires Kansas unified school districts to reapportion member districts to reflect census data or to ask voters to create a board comprised of members at-large.
The Peabody-Burns district is currently working with six districts with one member voted in from each district and one member at-large.
The board has reviewed the options to change this to a totally at-large school district or to ask the voters to change to a three member board with two members elected from each district.
Currently the board is still looking at the six member districts with one at-large member. This process is going to totally change the boundaries due to the differences in population throughout the school district.
Under the new law, school districts must have voter districts with equal population by the spring 2007 school board elections. Districts that fail to do so could face legal action.
The figures for the reapportionment are to be taken from the last census, conducted in Kansas in 2000. Equal population for voting lines is defined by the state as five percent or less difference between voter districts.
In any scenario the board looks at in reapportioning the district, it is going to have to split up the city of Peabody into multiple sections and the city of Burns will have to share voting privileges with a large section of the rural community to be able to equalize the voting districts.
Even if the board decided to change to a three member district they would still have to make some of the same concessions in the boundaries.
Any district patron wishing for more information about district voting districts and representation may call the central office at 620-983-2198.
