New school boundaries won't help Black Diamond

The Enumclaw School District will not be able to have director boundaries redrawn to give the Black Diamond area more representation.

Schools superintendent Mike Nelson said Friday that Sammamish Data System told him that director districts cannot be withdrawn based on expected future growth. They can only be redrawn according to growthcalculated by the latest U.S. Census population numbers.

Sammamish Data has been redrawing the boundaries for the district based on those numbers. But at the school board meeting Monday directors asked if the boundaries could be withdrawn to take into account future growth expected in Black Diamond.

Director Tim Nickson, who represents the Black Diamond area, said at times he felt outnumbered on the board.

In an email to the district, Sammamish Data says: “…Redistricting law has been clear on what we can and cannot use for parameters for redrawing when it comes to future growth.  We cannot take that into consideration when it comes to the population used for setting of the boundaries.

 “It is great that this is being kicked about and good thinking but we have to wait on this until after the population has actually shifted. At this point, projections are just that and cannot be used in the outlines.”

The redistricting process takes place every 10 years, after the Census comes out. The goal is to keep each district as close in population as possible. The total population in the district is 25,179, which would mean 5,036 people in each of the five districts. Currently two districts are 400 people apart. With changes drawn up by Sammamish Data, the difference would fall to a more acceptable 112 variance.

A public hearing on the boundary revisions will take place July 25, and the board will vote on them Aug. 15.