School Board Zones Redistricting

At its meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, the Salem-Keizer School Board of Directors voted 4-3 to approve adjustments to its school board zones, with the approval of Redistricting Map Alternative 1.

School Board Zones Redistricting

Salem-Keizer School Board heard from the community on alternatives for school board zones

Salem Keizer Public Schools has seven elected school board directors that lead the district: seven zones in the school district and one director for each zone. Candidates for school board must live within the zone where they will run for election. In the current voting structure, everyone who lives in the Salem-Keizer school district votes on all candidates. This is called at-large voting.

With the 2020 Census complete, it is time to make sure that each zone has a similar number of people. To do this, we must make some adjustments to our zone boundaries.

Two different proposals

The board has two different proposals for redrawing the zones for the district. The board sought public input in a public survey on each map from Nov. 17 through Dec. 1 to determine the final board zone map. Please review the two alternatives for redrawing the zones. [Survey is now closed.]

What is redistricting?

Redistricting is a process that distributes the population equally among electoral districts. This usually happens after the U.S. census, which takes place every 10 years. The census shows population growth or decrease in these areas, requiring population rebalancing to ensure equal representation. Special districts, such as school districts, collaborate with their communities on determining the updated school board zones.

What it isn’t?

REDISTRICTING DOES NOT CHANGE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AREA BOUNDARIES. Students will not be assigned to a different school if school board zones change.

Public input review and final decision

The board took all the public input and discussed the input in a school board work session on Dec. 7, 2021. You can review the meeting on YouTube in English and and on YouTube in Spanish.

The board is expected to make a final decision on zones at the school board meeting on Dec. 14, 2021. Public comment will be taken at the meeting.