Belen Schools draw up new board election districts

Belen

The Belen School Board is reviewing three options for redistricting its election districts.

Robert Don Lohbeck of Information Strategies presented three maps at the board’s Tuesday workshop and explained the changes necessary to bring the five districts into equal population.

“Every 10 years, voting boundaries must be reviewed and adjusted to keep the districts equal in size,” Lohbeck said. “This is done because different areas of a city or school district grow at different rates.”

There was a 40 percent disparity in the current boundaries. If the districts were evenly divided, the population of each would be about 5,057.

During the last 10 years, the highest rate of growth occurred in the District 3 area, which included the east side of the Rio Grande and NM 47 from the county line to the Los Lunas School District boundary. The 2000 Census found 6,161 people in that area.

“The first thing we did was to move the boundary line between District 3 and District 2, which had 4,083 people,” Lohbeck said. “By moving the boundary that followed the county line up to follow the railroad tracks, we were able to balance those districts to within in 33 people.”

District 4’s boundaries remain constant on all three maps, with a population of 4,976.

The remaining changes are among the boundaries of Districts 1 and 5. The question is how much of Precinct 22 should be in District 5.

Option 1 has the southern boundary of District 5 following the I-25 Bypass and continuing to the river following the southern boundary of Precinct 7.

In this configuration, the population for District 1 is 5,185 and 4,836 for District 5.

The southern boundary of District 5, in Option 2, follows the I-25 Bypass, then turns south on NM 314 to Salaz and north around Precinct 21 on Sausal Road to the river.

The population of Option 2’s District 1 is 4,962 and 4,947 for District 5.

Option 3 has the southern boundary of District 5 following the I-25 Bypass and NM 314 to Rivera Road then goes east to Molina and north along Precinct 21’s west boundary.

In this option, the population division is: District 1 with 4,867 and District 5 with 5,042.

“The maps of each option will be on display at the Belen Post Office, La Merced Elementary School, Belen Middle School and Central Elementary School,” Superintendent Don Duran said.

The board will have a second workshop regarding the boundaries on May 28. Public input is welcome at the workshop.