During a daylong hearing last week, a Montgomery County judge heard testimony in a case that will determine whether Central Bucks School District will continue to have nine voting regions or three.
The case centers around the district’s need to redefine its voting regions following the 2020 census. State law requires the population to be as equally distributed as possible throughout the voting areas.
The district’s newly created map was criticized by some who found the nine regions to condense political parties into certain areas.
CBSD Fair Votes, a grassroots organization consisting of district families, contested the map and presented its own with three regions, where voters would chose three directors from each, continuing a nine-member school board. In both plans, directors would serve four-year terms.
Each side offered testimony from school board members and experts in statistics and political reapportionment, detailing how creating the plans they supported would provide the more representative opportunity for voters.
Following the Sept. 28 hearing, Montgomery County Judge Cheryl Austin gave the attorneys representing each side seven days to file a brief and said she expects to decide the case in 20 to 30 days.
The existing nine-region map will remain in place during the upcoming election cycle. A new map will not go into effect until 2025.
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