URBANA - The Urbana school board voted 5-2 Tuesday to pass a new map of subdistricts from which board members are elected.

Board member Brenda Carter said she didn’t feel she could vote for the map and said she wished more community members would have provided input, especially those living in her sub district.

Board member Paul Poulosky mentioned community input from the board’s forum last week at Yankee Ridge Elementary School, as well as at the board’s Tuesday meeting from David Stramecky.

Stramecky is concerned, as a parent associated with Wylie Elementary School, that the school and its neighborhood is not well enough represented by school board members. He’s also concerned that the new plan, concentrates the wealthiest area of the school district by encompassing the most southeastern area.

Poulosky also mentioned concerns from those living in the neighborhood bordered by Lincoln Avenue, Vine Street, Florida Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, who didn’t want their districts to be switched.

Poulosky presented some tweaks to the maps the board decided to move forward with at its meeting last week. Those would have addressed the public’s feedback, but would move other people who wouldn’t have ample time to address the board about the changes.

The board had the goal of passing the new subdistrict map by the end of the year to save the county clerk’s office $13,000 in preventing it from printing voter registration cards twice. The board is required by law to reevaluate its subdistricts every 10 years, following the census.

Board member Elaine Gehrmann said it was the board’s responsibility to choose a map by the end of the year, and said she didn’t believe holding off for four or five more weeks would substantially increase the amount of public feedback the board would receive on the subdistrict maps.

You can see the maps on the district's website here.

The board also passed its tax levy, the same as was discussed in November. The district will levy for $28.5 million.