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LAUSD school board gets new boundary lines
With a 9-2 vote, the Los Angeles City Council approved new maps today for the Los Angeles Unified School District, though a final vote won’t be taken until June.
The vote was part of the redistricting process, which requires that districts lines be updated every 10 years following the release of the U.S. Census. LAUSD covers an area with a population of 4.54 million people, which means each of the seven board districts should have 648,733 residents.
Last minute changes to the map adjusted the alignment of Districts Two and Five in the eastern part of the city. John Marshall High School and Zoo Magnet School were both placed in the Fifth District, while 32nd Street School and Ted Alexander School were kept in the First District under amendments approved by the city council.
Council members Bernard Parks and Jan Perry were the dissenting votes. Parks told his colleagues he was concerned the Redistricting Commission’s final map was not reviewed by the public prior to the day of its adoption.
“This commission was working hand in hand to develop what they thought were maps that were vetted by the community,” Parks said. “(Now) it appears that the map that is being offered has not had community input or vetting so I’m just concerned that the process somewhere went off the tracks.”
Parks and Perry were also the two dissenting votes on the Los Angeles City Council’s redrawn maps back in March.
The next step is for the Bureau of Engineering to review the boundaries of the new maps, and then forward their findings to the City Attorney’s Office. A final ordinance to implement the maps is expected to be voted on in June.