School board approves new district boundaries

There should not be any surprises when it comes to the new boundaries for the Carson City School Board districts, said Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover.

He presented the new maps during the Tuesday meeting.

"The districts haven't changed much in 40 years," Glover said. "We kept all the incumbents in their current districts."

As required by law, all political districts have to be redrawn every 10 years.

He said data from the U.S. Census is used to evenly distribute voters throughout the districts.

"Now, with computers it's much easier than it was 10 years ago when we had to do it manually," Glover said.

Trustees voted unanimously to approve the new boundaries, which changed the number of people in the districts by 69 people, or a .05 percent change.

Board members were also given the option to change the current method of voting, where district boundaries determine where a candidate must live to run for the Carson City School Board. However, voters throughout the cast their ballots for any of the candidates.

Glover said they could choose to create a system where voters selected candidates in their own precincts, but discouraged it.

"That causes us a number of problems," he said, "because we'd have to create a lot more precincts. But that's strictly your decision."

Trustee James Lemaire said he would prefer to maintain the status quo of candidates running at large.

"I think it's a good idea that school district trustees come from geographically different areas so you don't have one street controlling the whole district," he said. "I think it's appropriate that all of Carson City has a say in who's sitting on the board."

The board agreed and voted unanimously in support.

Glover said the city will decide its new boundaries next month.