Pike BOE seeks to finalize redistricting
Published 11:15 pm Friday, August 19, 2011
The Pike County Board of Education will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29, at the Central Office boardroom to entertain public comments regarding the proposed redistricting plan for the Pike County Board of Education.
The Central Office is located at 101 W. Love Street in Troy.
Dr. Mark Bazzell, Pike County Superintendent of Schools, said that, after the last census report, the board had six months to complete the redistricting plan.
“We began the process in April and we are coming to the end of the six-month window,” he said. “Our board met with the Pike County Commission to see if we could come together and have a common map. The meeting was very productive for the most part and we were close in having a congruent map.”
Bazzell said other meetings of the board members and commissioners to discuss issues they might have with boundaries were never coordinated.
“I’m not sure if the commissioners have the same time table as ours but we were running out of time,” he said. “We had to move forward. We had to provide notice for a two-week period before the final adoption. When the census changes, the boundaries also change.”
Bazzell said the Pike County School Board members worked together on the redistricting plan and are all on the same page as to what the map needs to look like.
Copies of the redistricting plan are available at the Pike County Board of Education’s Central Office. Maps of the proposed redistricting plan are posted at the Central Office, at each of the county schools and appeared in The Messenger.
“If things go as expected, we will approve the final map at a called meeting of the school board following the public hearing on August 29,” Bazzell said. “We’re not certain where the county commission is regarding their map. But it’s still possible that it could be congruent with ours.”