TPSB considers redistricting options

In an effort not to be caught by deadlines, Terrebonne Parish School Board President L.P. Bordelon is encouraging elected members of the education system to begin planning now for the realignment of representative districts before they face term expirations in 2014.

“We don’t have to have this done until the election of 2014,” Bordelon said. “But we on the board are entering the end of the first year of our term. It should certainly be done at least a year in advance of year four of our term.”

Bordelon said that the last time school redistricting was conducted, school officials did it in conjunction with the Terrebonne Parish Council. While the parish council made redistricting its priority before the primary election that took place in October, school board officials opted not to take part in that activity as a joint project.

The school board president noted that the parish council seemed to be rushed in its effort to conduct redistricting during the same year as an election and that avoiding the same situation among education representatives would be a wise move. “Anything can happen in these things,” he said.

Bordelon said that if school board members began the process by the year 2012, it would likely take about six months to complete from the time of initiation to the time proposals go to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval.

School officials, if they accept Bordelon’s recommendation, would have two years to complete reapportionment before election.

“We have two options,” Bordelon said. “We could adopt the parish reapportionment and redistricting plan, or, as a board, we have a right to come up with our own plan. One factor is that the minority districts [now used by the Parish Council] have been approved by the Justice Department. I think the tweaking factor might be in some of the other districts.”

The redistricting recommendation includes being in contact with the South Central Planning and Development Commission as soon as possible to determine costs and an overall plan of action.

“We have to reapportion and redistrict,” Boredelon said. “To do nothing is not an option.”