Board OKs new districts - LBUSD: Downtown, North Long Beach areas are altered.
Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA) - Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Kelly Puente, Staff Writer
LONG BEACH - The Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education on Monday voted to approve a new redistricting map that makes slight adjustments to the boundaries in two of its five districts.
Political lines are being redrawn at all levels of government in Long Beach and across California to better balance district populations and give equal representation based on the 2010 U.S. Census.
Today, the City Council is scheduled to vote again on a redistricting plan for the nine council districts that it advanced two weeks ago. The council must approve the city, LBUSD and Long Beach City College redistricting plans by Aug. 31.
The LBUSD board last month was presented with several options that would make slight adjustments to District 1 in North Long Beach and District 3 in downtown to reach a balance of 102,189 people in each district, with an allowed variance of about 5,000.
The school board unanimously approved two plans that will have no impact on local schools. The new map for District 1, which currently has 108,022 people, will move an area with 1,680 people between Pacific and Atlantic avenues and 36th Street and Wardlow Road into District 2. The new map for District 3, which currently has 94,467 people, will redistrict an area between Obispo and Redondo avenues and Seventh street and Pacific Coast Highway, moving 3,063 people into District 4.
In other action, the board unanimously approved a new one-year contract for Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser that begins on Aug. 17.
LBUSD spokesman Chris Eftychiou said the superintendent over the past two years took a voluntary 10 percent pay cut to help the struggling school district. The cut bumped his annual salary down to $209,987. Steinhauser's full salary has been reinstated for the new contract, which says he'll make $233,319 over the next year but could be subject to furloughs.
In its annual reorganization, the five-member school board also voted unanimously to re-elect President Felton Williams and Vice President David Barton to serve additional one-year terms.
For Williams, a retired dean of LBCC's School of Business and Social Science, it will be his third term as president in his eight years on the board.
"I'm very elated over the confidence shown from my fellow board members," he said. "We have a good group of board members here, and over the next year we're not just going to survive, we're going to thrive."
kelly.puente@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1305