Just a quick post in hopes of giving valley residents a few, important links containing information/facts about the redistricting of our school board seats.
Snoqualmie Valley School District Director District Realignment Recommendation: director_realignment_recommendation-1-2
There is also Citizen Redistricting Proposal floating around the valley. Here is the link to that proposal: http://snoqvalleystudentsuccess.blogspot.com/2011/04/citizen-proposal-for-redistricting.html
Important note: this redistricting process is covered by Washington State Law RCW 29A.76.010. Need help understanding the state criteria? Here’s the
link: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.76.010
The SVSD recommendation was created by Sammamish Data Systems – www.sammdata.com. Here is the criteria explanation and redistricting process used by Sammamish Data: ESD & School Redistricting Letter . Sammamish Data states that using existing school board districts is an accepted redistricting starting point because “the existing districts do fall into the realm of ‘areas of common interest.'” “Considering existing districts” is not listed in the state criteria, but those districts are accepted as areas of common interest by mapping companies. This allows Sammamish Data Systems to use the existing districts as the starting point when drawing our new districts. The company states they also use the “existing districts” starting point for other political bodies, not just SVSD.
At its April 25th Snoqualmie City Council Meeting, the mayor and council came out against the district’s redistricting plan. They feel dividing Snoqualmie’s population into 4 pieces splits a very compact, like community with dense population – one that the state criteria works to preserve . One city council member said she could understand Sammamish Data Systems using existing school board districts as its starting point IF the SVSD population shift was minor. But the population shift in our district was dramatic. Snoqualmie grew 396% in ten years making it Washington’s fastest growing city.
The point of this post is to present the facts with some links – all public information. Give you the tools to help you decide. There are two options out there. Look at them. Decide for yourselves what makes the most sense for the valley. What plan best meets all state criteria.
There is a citizen petition about this topic. It asks the school board NOT to accept the Director District Realignment Recommendation. Here is a link to the online petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/fair-and-equal-representation-on-the-snoqualmie-valley-school-board/
There is a state required Public Comment Meeting for the SVSD Redistricting Plan tonight, April 28th, at 6:45PM at the District Office located at 8001 Silva Ave SE. This meeting proceeds the scheduled 7:30PM School Board Meeting.
