LWSD proposes new director district boundaries; changes will not affect school boundaries

The Lake Washington School District (LWSD) has proposed new director district boundaries to balance out shifts in population growth throughout the school district.

These boundaries are unrelated to school attendance boundaries -- the process will not change any neighborhood school boundaries.

LWSD is divided into five geographic regions or districts, one for each board seat. School board candidates must run for the director seat representing their district of residence. By creating five equal director districts, geographic diversity is ensured on the school board. Each position is elected by all district voters, so each of the five directors represents the entire district in their board actions.

Since the last director district realignment, there has been a substantial shift in population growth. Currently, districts vary in population from a low of 31,091 in District 1 to a high of 41,757 in District 5.

The proposed new director district boundaries would balance these populations so that all five districts would have approximately 35,500 residents.

The resulting population balance will be as followed:

• District 1 - 31,091 to 35,487
• District 2 - 33,318 to 35,496
• District 3 - 33,875 to 35,542
• District 4 - 37,435 to 35,397
• District 5 - 41,757 to 35,554

A district realignment comes after each U.S. Census is completed as school districts must review the boundaries of their director districts to ensure equitable geographic representation.

In April, the district contracted with Sammamish Data Systems to develop the proposal for new director district boundaries based on the latest census data.

A public hearing on this proposal will be held at the Oct. 10 school board meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. Large detailed maps will be on display at the meeting. Current and proposed maps are also available on the district website, www.lwsd.org.

The second reading of the proposal and potential adoption of the proposal is scheduled for the Oct. 24 board meeting. The board must adopt new director districts by Dec 4.

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