JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — In Jefferson Parish, the school board has decided to stick with the nine district map after a surprising turn of events Wednesday night.
The board previously voted to move forward with a plan to add two seats making it an 11 seat board in an effort to create four majority-minority districts.
"It was a surprise for me," said Diane Schnell, the only Latin American on the board. "I think diluting the Latino representation, I don’t think that’s fair. So, I think it needs to be addressed."
The idea to expand the district came after numbers showed the majority of students in Jefferson Parish schools are from minority communities. According to school district numbers, 38% of the students are African American, 31% Hispanic, 25% White, 5% Asian, and 1% from other ethnicities.
"Black and brown children need to see people who look like them and right now that is not the composition of our board," said Jacqueline Carroll Jones with the Jeremiah Group.
She was one of the first students to integrate a Jefferson Parish school in the 60s. She has been pushing for minority representation.
"If you haven’t walked in my shoes, you don’t know what's good for me," she said.
Wednesday night, board member Billy North amended his proposal saying he no longer believed the proposed maps would strengthen minority voices.
"Information we received has shown the best map is the 9 district map we have. The maps presented did not strengthen Latino voices and could weaken African American voting power," North said.
School board president Clay Moise voted to keep the district the same for now.
"From my view, what it means for the district is constituents of those nine districts have the opportunity to give their representatives a report card coming this November rather than throwing everything up in the air and redrawing the lines," he said.
The Power Coalition of Equity and Justice plans to continue pushing to redraw the district map.
"We are determined to fight for the communities voice so if that means you all being on the wrong side of history and us filing a lawsuit then we will keep the armor on," a representative from the group said.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.