School District 1 boundaries pending Census information

At some time, the trustee boundaries of Sheridan County School District 1 will have to be redrawn, but that can’t happen until after results of the 2020 Census are known.

Pete Kilbride, who’s the School District 1 superintendent, said the school district currently elects three of the five trustees from the three trustee boundaries – Dayton, Ranchester and Big Horn.

The problem, he said, is that those boundaries no longer conform to population requirements.

Kilbride said the population of the smallest trustee boundary must be within 10 percent of the largest boundary.

Trustees started discussions on the boundary issue late last spring, but the subject came up again at a work session earlier this week for the benefit of new board members.

Options for the district include redrawing boundaries, either with the current three trustee election areas or possibly with only two trustee election districts – Big Horn and a single area combining Dayton and Ranchester in a single Tongue River district.

Another option is for all five trustees to be elected at-large as two on the board currently are. If the district continues to elect trustees from specific areas, Kilbride said those must be based on the results of the 2020 Census, and that data probably won’t be available until possibly August or September.

Kilbride said the discussion at this week’s work session was primarily to provide information on the new board trustees, Mercedes Biteman of Ranchester and Chad Baker representing Big Horn. Eric Lofgren, representing Dayton on the board, was elected for the first time in last year’s elections, but he’s actually returning to the board after being appointed earlier last year.