The candidates are set for the September primary for the first Board of Education election in Prince George’s County since state government reorganized the board with HB 949 in 2002. Also set, at least theoretically, are the boundaries for the five districts that have garnered 30 of the 48 candidates for the Board of Education.
But the Board of Elections has yet to produce a map from written descriptions of the districts laid out in the bill by state legislators.
At best, a resident trying to determine which Board of Education district they live in has to know the election district they live in, down to the precinct. At worst, residents have to untangle a nest of census tracts and the blocks they contain to learn their Board of Education district.
Calls to the Board of Elections seeking an official map this week were not returned. On Monday night, a Board of Elections worker rebuked questions from a man asking about the map, saying the office knew where the boundaries were.
“They do, but the public doesn’t,” said Janis Hagey, co-chair of Citizens for An Elected Board. “It’s unfortunate because the community needs answers.”
Hagey said her group has pieced together a map of the five districts based on the written description in HB 949 and with help from planners and demographers.
The district charting process has been flawed with duplications, Hagey said, and has created at least one massive district that spans the eastern portion of the county from Laurel in the north to Accokeek and Eagle Harbor in the south. Hagey said the situation is ripe for confusion and carries the potential that multiple members from a certain geographic area could dominate the board, leaving community members left without recourse to have their needs heard and addressed.
At one point, Citizens backed a plan to use the County Council borders as Board of Education boundaries as well, Hagey said, but the idea failed.
“That concept would have helped clarify for the citizens specifically who your School Board member was,” Hagey said. “We supported it because it helped citizens know.”
