APS Board of Education to address impact of 2010 census on district

August 9, 2011

As the 2011-2012 school year gets underway, members of the Board of Education will meet to discuss how their individual school board districts will be impacted by the results of the 2010 census and analyze how the boundaries of those districts may shift to address changes in the population of Albuquerque.

The Albuquerque Public Schools district is made up of seven individual board member districts. While congressional, legislative, city and county redistricting focuses on voter representation, school district redistricting looks at population growth and proportionate representation of students who attend schools in the district. The districts are represented by board members who are elected for staggered four-year terms.

By law, school board districts have to review boundaries after each federal census. Based on preliminary results from the 2010 census, adjustments to some of the seven individual school board district boundaries may be needed because of population changes. These adjustments could impact the need for new schools or rebuilding schools. For example, as a result of the 2000 census 10 years ago, APS has either built or rebuilt 14 schools. In response to shifting population based on that census, APS reopened Coronado Elementary School downtown, built the Nex+Gen Academy. Several new schools have been built on the West Side, including Volcano Vista High School, Tony Hillerman Middle School, and Sunset View and Tierra Antigua elementary schools.

The redistricting being considered in this process does not affect attendance zones or which schools students attend. Attendance zones are addressed during very specific redistricting meetings for schools, particularly new schools or when population grows or shrinks in an attendance zone associated with a school.

More information will be available in the coming weeks on the Board of Education home page at APS.edu.