By T.A. Hendrickson
If you could design the ideal school district, what would it look like?
In a nutshell, that is the question on the table on Sept. 1, at 6:30 p.m., when the redistricting commission of the Los Angeles Unified School District will hold a virtual meeting on how to redraw the boundaries of the school districts that make up L.A. Unified.
The Sept. 1 meeting will focus on Board District 5, which includes Northeast L.A., Southeast L.A. and part of South L.A.
L.A. School Board district boundaries are redrawn every 10 years based on data from the latest Census.
At the meeting, the 13 political appointees who make up the LAUSD redistricting commission will gather input from participants on “communities of interest” that could logically be grouped together.
LAUSD defines a community of interest as a group of people in the same geographically defined area who share common social and economic interests. Examples include residents of a specific neighborhood or people who share a common language, sexual identity or orientation, modes of transportation or age ranges (such as seniors or college students).
The commission recommends that participants be clear about the criteria that define their communities of interest and explain the importance of their communities to the redistricting process.
The commission has a deadline of Oct. 29 to recommend a school redistricting plan to the L.A. City Council, which will make redraw the school-districts map by Dec. 31. School districts are to be as equal as possible in population while ensuring fair and effective representation for all of the residents of the district.
Gil Hurtado, a longtime city councilmember in the City of South Gate, is the redistricting commissioner from BD 5, appointed by Jackie Goldberg, the BD 5 representative on the School Board. The other six members of the School Board also appointed one commissioner each. Three members were appointed by the City Council president and three by the Mayor.
Here are details for joining the meeting on Sept. 1.
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T.A. Hendrickson, a native of Eagle Rock, is the editor of the Boulevard Sentinel and a former member of the Editorial Board of the New York Times.
