After receiving four plans for redistricting of the Lamar County School District Board of Directors’ five seats, school board officials have chosen to have a demographer reconfigure the fourth option, which will be decided upon at the next school board meeting.
School district superintendent Steven Hampton said that decision – which was voted on at the Feb. 10 board meeting – was made, in part, because the other plans would place one board member out of the district he currently represents.
“Therefore, they’re trying to have those lines clearer, so each one of the board members who currently serves will be within their districts and have the opportunity to re-run for their position,” Hampton said. “This way, none of the board members will change districts, and we won’t have two board members living inside the same district.
“We’re trying to keep that from happening.”
Although a map for the new option is not yet available, Hampton said it is “cleaner” because it uses Mississippi 589 for one border and U.S. 11 on the other border.
“It uses clearer boundaries, and so it would be easier to communicate to the public where those boundaries are,” he said. “So that’s what was the most appealing to our board members, was that Option 4 would be easier to communicate to the constituents who live in each district.”
The board redistricting will not affect students or parents in any way.
Hampton hopes to have the map available soon on the district’s website, www.lamarcountyschools.org.
“We’ve been in touch with the demographer, and we’re waiting on him to get back with us,” Hampton said. “Once we get that back, I think there’s going to be a work session at the next board meeting, and then once they approve the final map, we’ll put it on the website and get any public comment.”
The redistricting process is considered every 10 years, after each census. According to data from the 2020 census, Lamar County grew from 55,658 residents in 2010 to 64,222 residents in 2020, although not all of those residents fall under the Lamar County School District.
The Lamar County School District Board of Directors is made up of the following districts:
- District A, represented by Deborah Pierce. District A consists of a portion of west Hattiesburg, particularly the area near Turtle Creek Mall, and stretches north to Mississippi 42 in Sumrall.
- District B, represented by Jim Braswell. District B stretches from Interstate 59 west to the Oak Grove area, and south to Purvis.
- District C, represented by Jeremy Chance. District C consists of the Purvis, Lumberton and Baxterville areas.
- District D, represented by Matt Mayo. District D stretches from the Pine Ridge area north to Bellevue.
- District E, represented by Jennie Hensarling. District E consists of the Sumrall and Oloh areas, and runs south past Pine Ridge.
“(This ensures) that each one of our board members has equal representation into the school district,” Hampton said. “It was explained to us by our school board attorney that we can’t use the (Lamar County) Board of Supervisors lines, because with us consolidating with the Lumberton School District (a few years ago), we have a portion of our students who live in Pearl River County.
“So we had to draw our own, so we got in touch with a demographer to give us some scenarios where, by using the census block, we can get equal representation for each five board members.”
