The Snoqualmie Valley School Board has an important decision to make on Thursday, May 26.  On that night, they will vote on a 10-year plan to realign the board director districts, pursuant to state law and new census results, in order to reflect a shift of population between North Bend, Snoqualmie and Fall City

The school board has a choice. They can accept the district’s revised plan which keeps all incumbents in place and limits and delays long-awaited Snoqualmie representation, or they can make two adjustments to this plan to ensure that the school board is balanced with Snoqualmie representation in time for this year’s election.

One of the key components of the district plan is to reduce the number of North Bend directors from three to two, freeing up one new seat for Snoqualmie. But the district’s plan divides North Bend in a way that maintains all three North Bend seats until 2014. An idea that came forth through the public hearing process and was included in a citizen redistricting plan frees up that Snoqualmie seat in time for candidate filing this June for a seat on the school board by January 2012. The difference is simply where to draw the dividing line in North Bend coupled with when director terms expire.

Another key component of both the district plan and the citizen plan is the method of balancing seats between Fall City and Snoqualmie. To keep population balanced districts, one of the two Snoqualmie seats needs to have a small piece of the Fall City area. The district plan keeps the Lake Alice area (home of the incumbent director) with Snoqualmie but an idea from the citizen plan adds a different part of Fall City which is more fully compliant with criteria specified in state law.

Please join me and many others in encouraging the board to make two adjustments to the District Plan for timely and balanced representation and decision-making on the school board.

With education in mind,

Carolyn Simpson, Danna McCall, and Laurie Gibbs

Snoqualmie