December 13, 2008
by Harold Gentry
America is a land of diverse cultures – people who have come here seeking a better life and wishing to be a part of this great nation and its people. Without equal representation and equal access to government, minority groups will never feel that they are truly a part of our community or this nation’s people.
There is strength in diversity. Diversity built America and made it great.
The current ethnic distribution of children in the Cleburne School District, according to district records, is 57.4% White, 35.8% Hispanic, 5.4% African American, 1.1% Asian/Pacific Islander and 0.3% Native American.
CISD school board members are elected by an at-large system. Anyone living anywhere within the CISD limits may run for any seat on the school board. This has allowed under-representation of minorities on the board. The current makeup of our board is 100% White.
Three board members live within .87 miles of Gerard Elementary School, two live within 2.3 miles of Gerard, and of the remaining two members the farthest is 4.36 miles away according to Yahoo maps. In the absence of single-member districts our school children and parents are unequally represented, since most current school board members live primarily in one quadrant of the district. See map of Board Members Homes in relation to Gerard Elementary School.
In contrast, city council members are elected by single-member Districts. One council member is elected from each district.
Our outdated at-large election of school board members does not provide equal representation for the Hispanic, African American, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American parents and children who live within our school district. This unrepresented group makes up 42.6% of our school community.
CISD has seven Board seats available and seven Elementary attendance zones within the district. This is a good place to start to implement single-member districts. However, when we introduced the idea of single-member districts to some of our current board members the immediate response was that they were very opposed to single member districts.
Do the current all-White school board members think that they are the only ones capable of making sound decisions for the district’s children? Are there not good Hispanic and African American parents who could serve the interests of the children just as well?
The Board does recognize the need for better representation and has discussed the possibility of each board member adopting a different elementary school and thus a different attendance zone. This in no way addresses the issue of underrepresented minorities because the board still remains 100% White and all live in close proximity to each other. The board does not represent a true cross-section of the ethnic makeup of the community.
Now is a good time for the school district to tap into strength through diversity
and implement single-member districts, where one board member is elected from
each of the seven attendance zones. If we’re all about the best interest
of the children, then let’s get together and peacefully make the change
from at-large to single-member districts so that all the children and parents
can have equal say about their children’s education.
