New Sumner School Board District Boundaries Approved

The Sumner School Board ratified changes to its director district boundaries Tuesday night to accommodate an additional 9,368 residents in the school district.

State law requires that the district to redraw its boundaries every decade following the census to ensure that each school board member is representing 20 percent of the population in the district. Under that criteria the director districts were – to use a technical term -- "out of whack," said Communications Director Ann Cook.

Most of the growth in the district is near the Victor Falls area of the school district.

“Everything had to pull to south and east…to address the population shift,” said Cook.

That’s why director districts are now long and skinny on the map, as opposed to a more traditional configuration, such as in square blocks or a pie shape.

Though a shift is required, Cook said the district tried to make as few changes as possible.

“Because of the growth being so concentrated it was hard to do,” she said. “We tried to be mindful of neighborhoods and to keep things contiguous."

Sumner schools had until the end of the calendar year to redraw boundaries. The issue drew little attention, however, with no one commenting at on the issue.

All board members still live within their voting boundaries. District 1 is represented by Mike Pavlik, District 2 by Jeff De Marre, District 3 by Rick Hendricks, District 4 by Greg Hanon and District 5 by Sherm Voiles.

Board members passed the boundary changes with little comment and even a touch of humor Tuesday night.

“Can I change the color of mine?” joked Pavlik, whose district is indicated in yellow on the new map. “I want bright orange.”