Wetlands center invests in education for environment
June 12, 2012TPD already has 100 DUI arrests in ’12
June 12, 2012Three calls were offered for comments, and with no response a three-minute public hearing was completed, opening the path for members of the Terrebonne Parish School Board to adopt a new redistricting map by a 7-2 vote.
Board members Roger Dale DeHart (Dist. 7) and Donald Duplantis (Dist. 8) cast the descending votes on a map that makes subtle adjustments to districting representation adopted by the Terrebonne Parish Council last year. It is a plan that protects existing board members from having to compete against one another when the 2015 election cycle arrives.
Presenting the maps at last Tuesday’s school board meeting, South Central Planning and Development Commission CEO Kevin Belanger and Graphic Information Systems Coordinator Scott Leger were both present, but discussion involving them focused primarily on a scolding delivered by DeHart, who complained that a telephone call he had made to SCPDC was not returned in what he considered a timely manner.
By counting population numbers and balancing U.S. Justice Department requirements an arrangement was passed that avoids placing school board members Richard Jackson (Dist. 3) and Debi Benoit (Dist. 4) in one district and Hayes Badeaux (Dist. 9) and Brenda Babin (Dist. 5) in another, and having to face one another in any future election. Such a conflict would have occurred had the school board automatically adopted the plan selected by the parish council, as it has done in previous years.
The representation and election line concern arose because of the close proximity these school board members live to one another in relation to new parish district lines.
DeHart complained that the plan changes the number of people he gets to represent.
Duplantis has consistently resisted changing school district alignments from parish lines on principle. His argument has been that having the same district lines as parish council members minimizes voter confusion. “I never supported this plan, and I’m not going to support this plan,” he said.
The SCPDC will now submit the plan to the U.S. Justice Department for approval.
School districting realignment is required every decade to adjust for U.S. Census figures and comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires having a majority minority district for voter representation. The Terrebonne Parish School Board had previously rejected automatically accepting a map adopted by the Terrebonne Parish Council.
Complaints regarding representation lines among school board members did not involve Districts 1 or 2 as the designated majority minority districts. Those districts are represented by Roosevelt Thomas and Gregory Harding respectfully.
“I want to clarify that these changes do not take effect until the next election,” Babin said. “So, currently [the existing school board is] representing the same people.”
“The board seems to be on a pretty even keel right now relative to any controversy,” Terrebonne Parish School Board President L.P. Bordelon (Dist. 6) said .
Responding as to why board members appear more passionate about district representation lines than the general public, Bordelon said, “That’s politics.”
