TCS Board of Education adopts redistricting plan

Published 2:25 pm Saturday, March 11, 2023

On February 28, the Thomasville City School Board of Education unanimously approved the adoption of a proposed redistricting plan for the school board election districts during their regular board meeting.

Board Chair Kejar Butler said that the discussion involved provided documentation by Kenneth Turnipseed, the school board attorney, and a presentation during the work session before the approval during the regular board meeting. 

“Our school board attorney, Mr. Kenneth Turnipseed had explained the resolution and then in the board meeting we moved to adopt the resolution,” she said. “So, essentially that would reapportion  the Board of Education election districts.”

The change, she said, stemmed from information provided by the 2020 census that made it clear the entire city needed to go through reapportionment. Butler explained the changes were minor. 

“It was a very minor changes,” Butler said. “Basically, every board member will remain the same.”

Alongside the number of representatives, she said that the deviation of district lines compared to the previous map was close to zero. 

“As far as the district lines are concerned, it was a close to zero deviation,” Butler said. “It was actually a deviation of only 0.68%, so, you know, according to the information that we had received, it was apparent that the proposed district lines, the reapportionment office, really followed the ease of population, it wanted to have the least disruptive impact as possible.”

Butler said the Census had shown that there was a difference of 717 people in population between the two voting districts, with this reapportionment making changes to lessen the difference. 

“The statistics show that in the 2020 census, the population of voting aged persons in District 1 changed such that it was 717 fewer than district 2,” Butler said. “As a result, the state developed a redistricting plan that moved the lines such that District 2 is only 90 people greater than district 1. This changed approximately 500 voters districts.”

With all board members having seen the previous map and the proposed changes, including District 1 representatives Butler, Dr. Hazel Jones and Dr. Mary Scruggs, District 2 representatives Corey Sumner, Russell Beckham and Britney Glass and at-large representative Karen Kelso, Butler said that they made a full review of the documentation before approving the adoption of the plan.