Nacogdoches city-school district plan public forum to propose redistricting boundaries

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) - Wednesday evening the first of two joint Nacogdoches city and school district public forums took place. The topic of the night is redistricting.

A six-month delay in receiving U.S. Census figures placed Nacogdoches city planner Alaina Helton in crunch time to meet federal guidelines.

“The federal government only allows a 10% deviation in population between the least populated district and the most populated district,” explained Helton.

In the city, population shifts make the southeast ward the most populated. The least populated is the southwest ward. So, lines were adjusted. Fortunately, only slightly, says Helton.

“So it was really important to council to keep the district lines in similar as possible to the current ones.”

Nacogdoches ISD is adjusting to a south-to-north population migration,” explained spokesperson Les Linebarger.

“District 1 needed some additional population. District 4 had too much population,” he said.

Shifts of about 700 people were made to balance the population deviation.

“Anytime you wait ten years or more to do something like this, people are going to move around,” said Linebarger.

The goal is to minimize changes in representation and maintain demographic balance.

The same consultant was used by the county, city and school district; a good move under the current circumstances.

“We want to have this finalized by later this month because our filing date comes later this month,” said Linebarger.

Filing for the May 7 election begins as early as January 19.

The second joint city-school public forum will be Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Nacogdoches High School.

Copyright 2022 KTRE. All rights reserved.