Response To First School Board Reapportioning Meeting

To the editor:

As many RCT subscribers know I have been working on getting the school board seats reapportioned according to population. It has been a very interesting experience learning about the law, reading and studying the state code and then petitioning the county commissioners to reapportion. Progress is being made and hopefully in the next couple of months the process is complete.

The commissioners established a redistricting committee and invited me to present the information I have collected. I presented my information to the committee November 19th. After the committee was able to digest the information, they began to see the consequence of redistricting and at least 9 of the 14 are not excited about the shift of influence in the school district. I understand why they feel that way, it is not easy to change and even less easy if something is lost in the change.

When the majority of the committee realized Garden City and Laketown will likely have three votes on the school board the majority became upset that people "over there" would have control, especially since "they don't live there and don't have kids in the school system." They questioned if it was really necessary to use census data, "why don't we use registered voter data?" they asked or "why don't we use child distribution in the county?"  "But children data or voter registration makes more sense". They objected when Commissioner Cox said the committee has (by Utah State Code) to use census data to draw lines.

Many people on the South side of the county think the census is incorrect and that there are not 824 people that live in the Garden City zip code. Residents in Bear River Valley think that many summer residents improperly filled out the census data but I submit and believe the census is accurate and some people that are "summer" residents are indeed residents of Rich County. As long as they are registered as primary residents in only one voting district they have the right to choose where they are listed as primary residents. See Utah code 20A-2-104.  "Summer" residents are actually only a fraction of the population of Garden City residents as evidenced by the data below.

A number of families have moved to Garden City in the last ten years.  This is also evidenced by the data below which shows 92 elementary students coming from Garden City.  Many of these families make a living serving the recreational community of Bear Lake.  They plan on staying and raising their families here, and because many have been here multiple years already I think they will make it.

There is also a number of transient types of families and workers. The transient group is harder to track because they move in for a summer to several years. I think this group in particular does not register to vote or vote thus making it difficult to win a county wide election up to this point, so Garden City has some work to do to win county wide elections.

There are also many retirees who live in the Garden City area year round. This group is not to be confused with retirees who only live here in the summer, although some part time residents do claim their Bear Lake home as their primary residence. Each of these groups deserves representation under the law.  I have studied the census data for Garden City very closely and compared that to my own count. I believe the census data to be correct. It is not good to base policy on assumptions or desire that the census is faulty.  It is better to base policy on numbers and facts. 

Though the children demographic is not allowed by the law to use for reapportionment, it is interesting information to compare as the county redistricting committee would like to do. From the committee's discussion they believe there is a large disparity between the children population and census population.  However, the percentage of school children vs. the percentage of the whole population in Garden City compared to the county is almost exactly the same.

The information below came from the school district and primarily comes from the busing routes. I have done some computing to get some of the numbers (they are marked with *) and you can do the calculations if you like as well.

Garden City elementary children:  92
Laketown elementary children:  31*
Randolph elementary children:  61*
Woodruff elementary children: 51

Garden City middle school students:  36*
Laketown middle school students:  16*
Randolph middle school students:  25*
Woodruff middle school students:  30

Garden City high school students:  47*
Laketown high school students:  21*
Randolph high school students:  43*
Woodruff high school students:  24

Total students from Garden City and Laketown:  243

Total students from Randolph and Woodruff:  234

Total students of Rich County: 477

Garden City students make up 37% (175/477) of the county student population. Garden City residents, according to the census, make up 36% (824/2264) of the county population.

One interesting conversation arose from the potential of Laketown and the North part of Bear River Valley being in the same district. They realized that if Laketown voted as a block, Laketown would control the seat.  That really perturbed the majority of the committee and the discussion then turned to "maybe we should change all seats to at large."  I listened for a time and then interjected that if they don't like "Laketown" controlling the seat if Laketown votes as a block vote then maybe the committee understands how Garden City residents feel about the block vote of Bear River Valley residents when it comes to county commission seats. I think they came to some understanding.

I would like to thank the commissioners and the committee for taking the time to complete this process in a timely manner.  It is the right thing to do, even if it is not easy. I am happy to discuss my findings with any who have questions.  My purpose in requesting the school board redistricting is to see that every Rich County resident has equal representation on that governmental board.

Bryce Huefner, 435-757-0967

bryce@bearlakelandscape.com