BY KARISSA MILLER

The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, September 29, for the purpose of discussing new boundaries for the board’s electoral districts.

The meeting will take place at Career Academy and Technical School, 350 Old Murdock Road in Troutman, and is open to the public. No public comments will be taken at this meeting.

The board will listen to a presentation by redistricting expert Adam Mitchell, attorney Tharrington Smith and mapmaker Bill Gilkeson.

The meeting on redistricting has nothing to with where students attend school or attendance zones, but is strictly about the seven electoral voting districts for the board members.

“They will present us with three possible maps. We will discuss them at the meeting,” Board Chairman Martin Page said. “Then at the October 4 meeting people can give us their opinions on what map they like if they want to.”

The board began discussing the criteria for redrawing boundaries for voting districts at a meeting on September 1. This process is done every 10 years after each Census.

Voting districts in North Carolina are based on the “one person/one vote” principle, which means each voting district or ward needs to be nearly equal in population.

According to 2020 Census data, the northern end of the county, or District 1, has lost 16.07 percent of its population, while the fast-developing Troutman area has grown by 27.10 percent.

School board members stated during that meeting that they wanted to use a “clean slate approach” for redistricting.

Future Meetings

On October 4, the board will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. before the Committee of the Whole meeting, which is at 6 p.m., at CATS, located at 350 Old Murdock Road in Troutman.

During the 5 p.m. meeting, parents, staff and community members interested in providing feedback about the three redistricting maps are encouraged to attend. Those interested in providing feedback can sign up 30 minutes before the meeting.

“It will only be on redistricting,” Page said. “No one will be allowed to discuss anything else other than redistricting.”

The board tentatively plans to vote to accept a redistricting resolution during the regular school board meeting Monday, October 11.