"Status quo with a little fine tuning" summarizes school board redistricting work for the Franklin area reviewed Wednesday.

But if some residents of Baldwin have their way, that plan could change dramatically.

The St. Mary Parish School Board meeting at Franklin Senior High School, the second public hearing on the matter this week, prompted spirited feedback.

Parish Councilman At-Large Paul Naquin and ex-school board member Ralph Longman, both of Baldwin, protested the splitting of their estimated 5,000-resident community into three different districts, two of which (Districts 1 and 3) also go into the Franklin area.

The third proposed district (2) extends to the western boundary of the parish and includes the Glencoe-Four Corners area in addition to Baldwin.

The current population of Baldwin, according to Town Hall, is about 2,800 and now includes Raintree Village between Baldwin and Charenton.

"In 1990 through 1999, we had two representatives from the Franklin area and the community of Baldwin, almost 5,000 strong right now, doesn’t have a representative at all. … That’s what I’m up here tonight to talk about — why Baldwin doesn’t have a representative. In that area we’ve got West St. Mary High, Baldwin Elementary (and) G.W. Hamilton," Naquin said.

Demographer Cedric Floyd, a former Orleans Parish School Board member, argued for the plan.

"When people sit on the school board, they represent all the people. … I lived on the East Bank and I represented people on the West Bank. This (the St. Mary district lines) was the configuration before. I’ll be glad to look at it, but this is pretty much the way it was before and we adjust the lines for the 2000 census," Floyd said.

District 2 Representative Mary Lockley pointed out that she picked up a section of Baldwin under the proposed plan which she had not had before and pledged to represent the people in the town fairly, adding that she has family members who live in the area.

"What I’m saying is that Mary is in the Four Corners area, Baldwin should have one (representative) and Franklin should have two," Naquin said. "I don’t care if Baldwin is a minority. I’m not talking about minority or anything like that. I’m just saying our area should have a representative from the Baldwin area. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t care if it’s minority or white or anybody like that. I’m just saying this little community gets left out."

He acknowledged Franklin area board member Willie Peters for doing "an excellent job. He’s one of the few members I see at the schools."

"But we had two schools close in our area," Naquin said.

Floyd pointed out that it takes six votes on the 11-member board to close a school.

"I think Baldwin would have been better represented if they had one person from the Baldwin area, whether they had been black or white," Naquin said.

Longman, a former school board member, agreed with Naquin’s assessment of the situation.

"I was on the board prior to 1994 and I worked with you then and I asked you back then not to split up Baldwin and it fell on deaf ears. … It was all together prior to 1994 and now we have no representation and I object," Longman said.

By the end of the hour-long public hearing, Floyd agreed to present an option to the school board at its monthly meeting Thursday, Feb. 14, that will include a Baldwin representative.

School board members are expected to make a decision then on the plans reviewed Monday in Morgan City and Wednesday in Franklin. The tight time line is forced by the fact that school board elections are this fall and U.S. Justice Department approval of the updated plans must come well before candidate qualifying in August.

Several school board members and about 10 area residents met Wednesday with Floyd, who is redrawing the district lines for the school board.

The plan, as presented during the public hearings this week, contained minor changes necessary to bring population numbers into compliance with Justice Department regulations when population data from the 2000 census is considered.

Floyd noted that District 7, represented currently by Wayne Deslatte, maintained an even split between people in the Bayou Vista area and in the Centerville-Verdunville area.

The eastern boundary of the district was moved slightly more to the east to reduce the size of District 8, which grew considerably over the last decade.

Accordingly, even though there was a population loss in the western side of the district, the boundary line was not moved, Floyd said.

In Franklin, District 1 included more of the city than it had previously.

Peters questioned the reasoning, noting that doing so would pull District 4’s boundaries "way out of Franklin."

Floyd said it was done to maintain the Justice Department’s "one-person, one-vote" requirement and the three black majority districts on the western end of the parish.

All of the incumbents’ homes were kept in their respective districts in the proposed plan, Floyd said.

Floyd’s proposed plan utilizes several split voting precincts which have zero voter population to "bridge land areas" to accommodate district population needs.

Floyd added that it was not considered gerrymandering to do so.

All of the voters in the precincts in question are in other districts.

Those districts affected by zero voter precincts populations include 2, 3, 4, 7 and 11.

With a total population of 53,500 divided into 11 single-member districts, the ideal district population size is 4,864. All districts must come within five percentage points of that number to satisfy the U.S. Justice Department.

When the 2000 census numbers were plugged into the 1990 district lines, population totals forced the redistricting, Floyd said.

District statistics under the proposed plan include:

—District 1, 4,671 people, a 93-person and negative–3.97 percent deviation, which is broken down into 1,637 white and 2,871 black (61.46 percent) residents. This currently is Joseph Foulcard’s district.

—District 2, 4,783 people, an 81-person and negative–1.67 percent deviation, 1,722 white and 2,661 black (55.63 percent). This currently is Lockley’s district.

—District 3, 4,893-people, 29-resident and 0.60 percent deviation, 3,423 white and 1,255 black (25.65 percent). This currently is Daniel Brumfield’s district.

—District 4, 4,874, a 10-resident and 0.21 percent deviation, 2,144 white and 2,662 black (54.62 percent). This currently is Peters’ district.

Schools Superintendent Lloyd Dressel invited all interested persons to attend Thursday’s 5 p.m. meeting at the Central Office Complex in Centerville.