The Pulaski County Election Commission voted 2-1 Monday to approve the school board election zones for the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District as adopted in March by the district's interim School Board.
The commission's approval -- necessary by Wednesday to meet the legal deadline for the Sept. 15 school board election -- was the final step needed before the candidate filing period begins this summer, Bryan Poe, Pulaski County director of elections, said after the commission meeting.
As a result of the election-zone plan, five members of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board will be elected from single-member zones and two will be elected at large by voters throughout the district. The 5-2 election-zone plan differs from the seven, single-member zones used in Pulaski County's other public school districts.
The Arkansas Board of Education created the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district and appointed an interim School Board late last year after voters in the area voted overwhelmingly in support of a new district in September. The interim board is to serve until the Sept. 15 election.
Patrick Wilson, an attorney for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, asked in a letter to Poe for the commission's approval of the election-zone plan previously approved by a unanimous vote of the interim School Board.
Wilson cited Arkansas Code Annotated 6-13-631 as the basis for action by the commission. The law directs school boards to set boundary lines in accordance with the federal law and with the approval of the controlling board of election commissioners.
Election Commissioner Leonard Boyle Sr. noted that the minutes of the School Board meeting in which the election plan was approved reported that Gwen Harper, a representative of the Jacksonville NAACP chapter, spoke in opposition to the 5-2 plan, saying it had the potential to violate the federal Voting Rights Act.
Boyle questioned Poe on who is responsible for evaluating election-zone plans for compliance with federal law, and what were the repercussions for the commission if the plan is found to be in violation.
Poe said attorneys for Pulaski County and the state Board of Election Commissioners have advised that a county election commission's approval of an election-zone plan is a formality.
"I don't see how we can have liability," Election Commission Chairman Pat Hays, an attorney, said. "We're not the ones drawing the boundaries or dividing the district into zones. The law just charges us administratively to say that every document that is necessary to have an election has come before us and we have looked at it."
Boyle initially made the motion to approve the election-zone plan documents, withdrew it "to err on the side of caution," and then reinstated it, saying he didn't want to hold up the September election.
Boyle and Hays voted for the motion. Commissioner Kevin Gorman voted against it.
Gorman had asked for legal advice on the commission's responsibilities in approving the zones and a possible delay on a vote. He noted that the letter requesting approval was dated May 28, two weeks earlier, and "I don't like making a decision with a gun to our heads."
Representatives of the new school district and the NAACP in Jacksonville did not attend the Pulaski County Election Commission meeting.
The election-zone plan selected by the Jacksonville board was one of several options developed by Metroplan, a central Arkansas intergovernmental planning agency.
Each of the plan's five zones has 7,424 to 7,920 residents.
Four of the five zones have majority-white populations.
Zone 2, which is generally north of Military Road and east of Spring Street, has a slightly higher black population than white.
Members of the interim School Board, which has five black members and two white members, are eligible to run for the elected positions later this year. The new board, however, is expected to have at least one new member because none of the interim board members lives in the north Pulaski County election zone, which is Zone 5.
Metro on 06/16/2015