How my neighbors and I fixed an IPS school board map

INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — First, a message to the residents of Windsor Park and parts of the Spades Park neighborhood:

Contrary to what you may have seen on the Indianapolis Public Schools website, you will be voting for a candidate to represent IPS board District 2.

Until Oct. 2, the IPS website had the area — technically Precinct CN049 — situated in District 1.

I discovered the error in a text thread with neighbors. My neighbor Chris Hartley commented on the choices for District 1.

“Huh,” I responded. “My sample ballot says we’re District 2.”

Either the IPS map was wrong, or my ballot was. I didn’t want to wait until I voted to find out.

That simple text exchange launched a flurry of research and reporting that resulted in this story.

A simple error or an election issue?

To be clear, at first I thought we might be dealing with a much bigger problem: Days away from early voting, was there an error on our ballot?

And if there was an error on our ballot, how many other voters would encounter similar problems?

I set to work, tapping our K-12 education reporter, Carley Lanich, to help me untie this knot.

As we were contacting state and local officials, my neighbor Chris began digging, reading IPS board meeting minutes and mapping the board districts using publicly available data.

I did not ask him to do this. But it was a “weird puzzle” that Chris wanted to solve, to see exactly how the redistricting played out.

“I pay attention to and care about school board races and who’s on the school board, and I have two kids in IPS schools and so it’s highly relevant to me,” Chris told me. “I love digging into and better understanding what goes into the decisions that shape how and who we get to pick for our elected representatives.”

So, he compared the data from the initial IPS map and cross referenced it with the election board’s boundaries. That showed the conflict was relatively small. It affected only our precinct.

He also found the source of the discrepancy: When the IPS board passed a 58-page redistricting resolution in December 2022, it included our precinct in both District 1 and District 2.

The technical version

Zach Mulholland, IPS executive director of operations strategy, broke down the technical explanation for me.

In the mapping software, a small sliver of the precinct remains in District 1, but the rest is in District 2. That sliver doesn’t have any voters inside it, but the mapping software saw the sliver and included the precinct in District 1 in addition to District 2.

The mistake was corrected after Marion County’s voter registration department flagged the duplication in November 2023.

So, simply put, it was a data error — one that was caught and corrected before it was printed on the ballot — but one that persisted on informational maps published by IPS and local media.

[From Indy Documenters: See notes from an April 2024 Marion County Election Board meeting in which the errors were discussed]

“It has this cascading impact where you can kind of think, ‘Oh, it was deliberate,’ or, ‘Oh, there’s some secret meaning behind it,’” Chris said. “But in fact, people are people, and people make mistakes.”

That’s not to say it has no consequences.

A vindicated neighbor

While reporting this story, I also reached out to Mark Latta, another neighbor with a child in an IPS school who I know is engaged in IPS issues.

Earlier this year, having seen a recent map that placed him in District 1, Latta decided to run for the school board as part of an informal slate of candidates with shared interests and concerns over education in the city. He began collecting signatures — only to find he didn’t actually live in the district. At that point it was within 24 hours of the filing deadline and too late to find another candidate.

“I’m someone who likes to think of themselves as being involved in IPS, and probably thought I had an above average knowledge of how to navigate this,” he said. “At that time, it was like, OK, now I have to go on this apology tour.”

Members of the board who spoke to me were unaware of the issue. Board president Angelia Moore, who joined after redistricting, said she had “no idea” about the error. Will Pritchard, who represents District 1, likewise said he was unaware.

In response to our questions, IPS quickly fixed the map on its website.

For my neighbor’s part, he sees the experience as the natural result of putting open government data in the hands of an engaged citizenry.

“I think that we are stronger, we have better outcomes, and a better democracy when more people are involved,” Chris said. “And we also have to give each other grace.”

K-12 reporter Carley Lanich contributed reporting.

Reach Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.