Kristy Smith,
ABSS Redistricting
I had been organizing a parents' group and petition for the Alamance-Burlington School System to reconsider its most recent school redistricting plan. On first glance, the new districts seemed off: they meandered their way through certain neighborhoods and intentionally dodged others. Furthermore, the new districts would break up the current districts, effectively disintegrating the community of the cultures that had developed around the schools. Worst of all, it appeared that the new plan clearly favored some districts and injured others.
I knew that the socio-economic numbers and census facts would raise significant questions about the new plan. But I was unsure of how to produce that sort of analysis and report. Enter Michael. Out of the blue, he found the website I had been maintaining for the parents' group and reached out offering to help.
Michael overcame a handful of technical challenges, such as dealing with the school system's antiquated mapping technology, calling the administrators directly to track down the necessary data, and producing a polished report that was easy to understand for the average member of the community. He did all of this very quickly and effectively. Communication was a breeze throughout the entire process.
The school system's redistricting effort is ongoing, but the reports that Michael produced confirmed our intuition very clearly with hard statistics and numbers. As you may know, school redistricting tends to be a heated issue. Having the unarguable numbers to support our case adds immeasurable quality to the conversation.