A possible

outcome of the new U.S. Census figures is that Fulton County's Board of

Education could increase from seven to nine members

That's one

of the scenarios the board is examining as it starts work on reapportioning

the population into new voting disticts.

The board has

scheduled a tentative meeting June 26 at 5 p.m. at the Celeveland Avenue

Administrative Center to discuss the district lines.

School officials

said that unlike the city of Atlanta, the Fulton County School District

does not have the power to redraw its own voting district lines. It must

look to the Georgia General Assembly to do so.

The ideal district

size for a seven-member board is 61,330. Each district must be within

plus or minus 5 percent of the ideal size. Because of the distribution

of the population, officials said, it is not possible to achieve this

without sharing a district between the north and south part of the school

system.

While the law

states that non-contiguous districts are not allowable, Linda Meggers

of the Reapportionment Office said Fulton's case would be considered an

exception, because the school system boundaries are not contiguous and

therefore a shared district does not violate the intent of the law.

The only scenario

in which a shared district is not necessary would be to expand the school

board from seven to nine members, six north and three south.

So far, the

board is leaning toward keeping seven members, but no final plan has emerged.

Any plan approved

federal Voting Rights Act and with the United States and Georgia constitutions.

In drawing

up the new districts, the board will look at several issues:

Each voting

district should be drawn to achieve substantial equality of population

among the seven districts. The total population deviation for the entire

plan should not exceed 10 percent.

Each voting

district should approach the ideal district size as nearly as is practical.

As a general

rule, voting districts must be composed of contiguous geography. In light

of the School District's unique geographic configuration, a district combining

noncontiguous parts of north and south county would be allowed if mathematically

necessary.

Voting districts

should be geographically compact.

District lines

may be drawn to respect political subdivision lines and natural/artificial

geographic boundaries.

District lines

may be drawn in a manner that maintains communities of common interest.

Partisan political

considerations and voting behavior may be taken into account.

Contests between

incumbents may be avoided.

Core existing

districts may be preserved when they remain consistent with the ideal

district size.

Race cannot

be the predominant factor motivating redistricting decisions. The board

may naturally be aware of race as one of several demographic factors,

but traditional redistricting principles should not be subordinated to

race. If race is the predominant factor in redistricting, there will be

a violation of equal protection provisions in the Constitution.