Clark County School Board electoral map to be redrawn

Redrawing the School Board's electoral map is like handling "dynamite over a campfire," jokes Rick Baldwin, chief demographer for the Clark County School District.

The explosiveness arises from trying to revise the boundaries of seven districts according to 2010 U.S. census while being sensitive to the representation concerns of minority communities.

School Board members will take up four proposed redistricting scenarios at 10 a.m. Saturday at a special workshop at the Greer Educational Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Road The board is not expected to approve a new map until the summer.

Because some early recommendations divided a Hispanic neighborhood across three different School Board districts, "there was a cry of anguish when they were revealed," said Sylvia Lazos, a Boyd School of Law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She also is co-chair of the Southern Nevada Diversity Roundtable.

Hispanics account for half of the district's students in grades 1-3, but the makeup of the School Board does not reflect the growing Hispanic community. There are no Hispanic representatives on the board, which has six white trustees and one black member.

While there have been Hispanic candidates for office, Lazos contends that those with Latin surnames have difficulty being elected.

In the 2010 election, Lorraine Alderman beat Javier Trujillo in District D, a central valley area where Hispanics were thought to have a strong chance for election. District D's former representative was Hispanic, but his name was Larry Mason, Lazos noted.

She warned that examples of "racial polarization" could be used in litigation against the district if the electoral map does not preserve "communities of interest."

The School Board has directed staff to look at maintaining Hispanic communities of interest in three districts: D in the central valley, G in the east valley and E in the northwest valley.

School Board members have asked staff to preserve District C as the black community of interest because it contains the historically black neighborhood of West Las Vegas, which is generally bordered by Carey Avenue to the north, Bonanza Road to the south, I-15 to the east and Rancho Drive to the west

School Board President Carolyn Edwards also wants to maintain District F in southwest Clark County as a community of interest for Asians and Pacific Islanders. Edwards represents that area.

Districts are based on the overall population and not the number of students living in the area.

School demographers are trying to divide the county's 2010 population of 1,951,269 into seven, roughly equivalent trustee districts with a target number of about 278,752 per district. That's in contrast to the 2000 census when the county had a population of 1,357,738 and each trustee district was planned to accommodate about 196,534.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.