TAMPA -- Hillsborough School Board members have approved new district maps, after a contentious process that brought out ethnic and partisan tensions.
The board's five Democrats approved Plan F, which places a large number of Hispanic residents in District 1 and most African-American residents in District 5. Karen Perez spoke in favor of the plan, even though she sits in an at-large district. Perez was rankled when another board member, Stacy Hahn, said that she won her district "by chance."
Hahn and Melissa Snively, the two Republicans on the officially non-partisan board, voted no. Snively says the plan puts more residents in her East and South Hillsborough district than the others, and will have to be reconfigured before the next redistricting cycle.
See the map below.
Photo: Hillsborough School District
Disrictr Map approved by Hillsborough School Board Photo: Hillsborough School District