Redistricting: Every ten years, each school district board of directors is obligated to review the district’s population as measured by the most recent United States Census and take any actions required by law regarding board zoning. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-631, any school district having a minority population of ten percent (10%) or greater is required to elect its school board of directors by zones of substantially equal population. Using the 2020 Census data, the district must calculate the total population residing within the boundaries of each zone. If the former zone arrangement violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or the population differences between the zones exceed those allowed by the “one person-one vote” principle of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the district's zones must be redrawn in compliance with the law.
Guiding Principles: In addition to the legal criteria for evaluating a districting plan, many traditional criteria guide the creation of new electoral districts. Internally, new district boundaries should preserve, rather than divided communities of interest who share common traits. Externally, each district should be as closely and neatly packed together as possible and should not possess islands of territory disconnected from another portion of the district. To allow for intuitive and efficient election administration, district boundaries should attempt to be coincident with other electoral boundaries such as state legislative districts and bounded by visible physical features such as rivers, lakeshores, roads, or railroads to the greatest extent possible.
Our Work: The delivery of block-level population from the Census was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was delivered on August 12. The maps and charts on the following pages highlight the former zones and three scenarios for zones redrawn according to 2020 Census data. Following each map is a chart describing the population and demographic makeup of the zone.
Lee County School District: Total population for the Lee County School District reported in 2020 Census is 8,600. Approximately 1,543 of 8,600 total population is located in The East Arkansas Regional Unit (Brickeys Prison). The adjusted population considered for redistricting will be 7,057 and the target population of each zone in a seven-member plan will be 1,008.

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