The seats on the MCCSC School Board are long overdue for an update on their boundaries.

Our community benefits from excellent public schools. Local control of education—such as through our elected school board—is essential so that schools are accountable to the communities they serve. While all voters in Monroe County vote for all candidates, school board candidates must live in a district that has an open seat in an election year. 

Yet, the boundaries for current school board seats have not changed since 1996. The status quo is outdated, disproportionate, and interferes with the integrity of the election process.

With population shifts within the county over the last 21 years, school board seats now draw candidates from highly unequal populations, with the largest districts (>22,000) more than double the size in population than the smallest (>10,000). In the last several election cycles, at least one seat has run uncontested.

We request that the MCCSC Board of Trustees vote YES at the Sept. 26 school board meeting to begin the process of updating the school board governance plan.