Rich Civic Times
RANDOLPH, Utah. March 6, 2014. Reapportionment of the Rich School District
was discussed. In the previous week on
February 25 an open meeting was called and held by a citizen’s group, headed by
Bryce Huefner, in Garden City to preliminarily discuss the fact that Garden
City’s population had grown and that there needed to be a reapportionment of
school board members based on population. That meeting had sbeen attended by the
county commissioners.
Chris Coray, resident of Rich
County, summarized at the county commission meeting, the need for the county to
come into compliance with the Utah State Code and complete a reapportionment
that is required by state law at least once every 10 years. No one in the current government could
remember when this last occurred but it was certainly not in this century.
The Utah code requires that Rich
County schools have a 5 member school board, with each district substantially
equal in population. The 2010 U.S.
Census identifies the population of Rich County as 2,264 (2012 Census estimate
is 2267). Using this data for the 5
member board required by the Utah Code
in this county, arithmetic produces an ideal size of a single district as 453
persons (to the nearest whole person). Courts have allowed a 10% variance but the
current districting does not come close to meeting the 10% test, and in fact
there is currently at least as much as an 82% population variance from the
ideal in one district (824 census vs. 453 ideal), and one district has a U.S.
Census population 238% the size of another (824 vs. 346).
The commissioners indicated that
they understand the current situation and accepted the need for a
reapportionment to take place.
Commissioner Cox said that the current plan is to appoint a committee to
begin the process of data gathering for reapportionment and that he expected
that this would be under way in the next 30 days. For the record, the exact Utah State statute
requiring this reapportionment is Title 20A-14-201, which reads in part,
“The
county and municipal legislative bodies shall divide the school district so
that the local school board districts are substantially equal in population and
are as contiguous and compact as practicable, and that this must
occur “At least once every 10 years”.
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