Education agencies demonstrate redistricting mapping tools to Vermont lawmakers

A joint hearing of the Vermont Senate and House Education committees on Thursday heard a demonstration of three redistricting mapping tools developed by the Agency of Education and the Agency of Digital Services to support the redistricting task force.

Secretary of Education Zoe Saunders and John Adams, director of the Center for Geographic Information at the Agency of Digital Services, told legislators the agencies had produced several conceptual maps and three web applications — a district builder, a school explorer and a drive-time mapper — to visualize possible school-district configurations and related metrics. Saunders said the agencies were “not coming today with an endorsed map” but offered the work as a resource for the task force.

The district-builder application lets users assemble districts from municipalities or supervisory unions, view changing average daily membership and grand-list per student metrics, rename districts, export assignments, and generate reports with district profiles and a 10-year change analysis. Adams said the builder also supports importing saved assignments and sharing configurations via a long URL that reproduces a user’s settings.

The school-explorer tool…