Johnston County has approved new school board election maps. See what’s changing
The Johnston County school board approved a new election map on Wednesday ahead of an upcoming deadline imposed by state lawmakers.
Legislators had approved the school board’s request to move from at-large to residency-based districts for elections. Lawmakers had given the school board until Friday to either adopt its own lines or use the same boundaries that the Johnston County Board of Commissioners run on.
The new map will be used starting in 2024, when four of the seven school board seats are on the ballot.
School board candidates will now have to live in one of the districts on the ballot. But candidates will still be elected by voters countywide.
“Although we are now districted, we will still represent the entire county and, so the entire county gets to vote on each of our elections,” said board member Michelle Antoine.
The board unanimously selected map option D-1, one of three choices it had sought public comment on before the vote. The new map will be given to the Johnston County Board of Elections to update records to show the school board district for each voter.
Election change requested by school board
On Oct. 23, the school board passed a resolution asking the General Assembly for permission to move to residency-based districts. Board members cited how the lack of district lines had led to no members being elected from the southern part of the county.
The school board also asked state lawmakers to move the elections to odd-numbered years when only municipal races are on the ballot.
Legislators approved the switch to residency districts but balked at changing the school board’s election cycles.
School board members had thought they’d have a year instead of just three weeks to come up with the new election lines. Board members said they didn’t use the commissioners’ map because it didn’t meet the legislature’s requirements that each district have approximately the same number of residents.
School board members said they also wanted each district to have at least one high school.
“This is only for the election of the Board of Education, so I don’t want any parents or grandparents or guardians to think that this is changing your child’s school assignment,” said board chair Lyn Andrews. “It is not.”
