The Bulloch County Board of Education is discussing the best way to reapportion five of its eight voting districts after population growth reflected in the 2010 Census made the districts out of compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Board is required by the state to submit a draft reapportionment plan by Aug. 15.
Board members began reviewing a draft reapportionment plan at their June 23 work session. The plan was prepared by Superintendent Lewis Holloway with assistance from Brian Knight of the state’s Legislative Reapportionment Services Office. The Reapportionment Office provides assistance with this issue for elected bodies at the local, state and federal level.
The board is looking for public input to the draft plan and will accept comments at its regular board meeting Thursday and also on Aug. 11. Anyone interested in commenting should contact the board’s secretary at 212-8505. The Board meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. in the William James Educational Complex Board Room, 150 Williams Road in Statesboro.
For the plan to be compliant with federal law, the population of each of the eight school board districts must be within three percent of 8,777, which was calculated by dividing the county population – 70,217 – by the number of districts – 8.
The draft plan, which meets federal requirements, proposes the following: (1) redistricting 863 citizens from District 3 (Edwin Hill) to District 1 (David Ball); redistricting 1,451 citizens from District 6 (Anshul Jain) to District 8 (Maurice Hill); and redistricting 528 citizens from District 6 (Anshul Jain) to District 4 (Steve Hein). The changes are contiguous to their new districts and keep the residences of existing Board members within their current districts.
District 6, represented by new Board Member Anshul Jain, had the most significant population increase with a 24.3 percent deviation from the required three percent range.
“We are working to make these districts compliant and are open to constituent input, but we are bound by the Justice Department’s parameters,” Jain said. “When looking at the proposed changes on a map, one can see ‘finger-shaped’ additions to districts which may be necessary to obtain the pockets of population necessary to gain compliance.” 
“In this process these ‘fingers’ are normal,” said Holloway. “Each voting district is made up of Census codes.  A Census code is given to each area contained inside of four roads or roads plus water courses or sometimes railways. Due to this the districts sometimes develop these shapes to pick up areas with the right population to balance a district.”
“I feel good about what’s being presented,” said board vice chairman and District 8 representative Maurice Hill. “I do feel it’s what’s best, and I want those constituents that may be added to my district to know that they will receive fair representation from me.”
Hill’s district had the second highest population increase.
Once the Board approves a final plan, it will be forward to State Rep. Butch Parrish (R-156). Parrish was tasked by the state to write and initiate a reapportionment bill for Bulloch County that would be passed by the Georgia General Assembly, signed by Gov. Nathan Deal and then sent to the US Department of Justice for a required preclearance before federal approval and implementation. The Bulloch Board of Elections will notify all affected registered voters.
The voting reapportionment process is not affiliated with the Board’s prior discussions of school attendance zone redistricting. The Board’s voting districts are different than its school attendance zones that are set locally and determine school placement. The voting districts are overseen by the General Assembly and the Department of Justice.