School Board moves into next phase of redistricting

New map adjusted for 2020 population

Kirk Boxleitner | Jun 02, 20220

The North Mason School Board reviewed the redistricting reports and maps produced by Sammamish Data Systems so it could approve moving to the next phase of the school district’s redistricting.

North Mason School District Superintendent Dana Rosenbach summed up the report from Sammamish Data Systems, which the district contracted to evaluate the latest U.S. Census information.

“We do have a requirement, when the new census comes out, that we have to evaluate the distribution of our director districts,” and get them to be as evenly distributed as possible, in terms of numbers of voters, according to Rosenbach, who credited Sammamish Data Systems with performing this function, not only for the North Mason School District, but also for “most districts, for many, many years.”

Rosenbach reminded the board members they had approved contracting with Sammamish Data Systems to do this work earlier this year, and “the maps and letter you’ve received explain what they think they’ve come up with for the best adjustments.”

Rosenbach noted that Board Director Laura Boad’s District 3 received the most recommended adjustments, even as she said “there’s not a great deal of change to our current director areas.”

Rosenbach told the board that, under Sammamish Data Systems’ proposed redistricting, none of them would be relocated to areas they aren’t currently representing, “which is nice, so the process is that the next thing you would say to me is to go ahead and have them put a presentation together, and then we’ll bring that (presentation) to a board meeting.”

Rosenbach said the board meeting in question, once selected, would require at least a week’s notice for the public, “and then, we would have a resolution to ratify the new plan that (Sammamish Data Systems) has presented its draft of to us here tonight.”

The board directors didn’t have any questions. District 1 Director Erik Youngberg credited Rosenbach with preemptively answering his questions, while District 5 Director Arla Shephard Bull added, “I thought it was good that none of us live on the borders of our districts. I barely saw any changes.”

Boad agreed that her district underwent the biggest proposed changes, as “I think it got way bigger,” with Shephard Bull suggesting portions of property were taken from Director Leanna Krotzer’s District 2, whereas Boad saw some of that territory coming from Shephard Bull’s District 5.

“Which is surprising, because I didn’t know that we had that big of a change in population,” Boad said.

In the March letter from Sammamish Data Systems, Redistricting Project Manager Robert Schweitzer said the map outlining the adjusted board directors’ districts was also accompanied by “a statistical tabulation showing the 2020 population, by race and Hispanic origin, for each of the new board districts, and (for) the entire district.”

Prior to receiving Sammamish Data Systems’ reports, former District 1 Director Art Wightman had speculated in October about hypotheticals such as the school district having four director districts instead of five, or possibly even having an at-large director district.