Posted on Thu, Aug. 28, 2008
A federal judge has approved a legal settlement aimed at adding Hispanic representation to the Bethlehem, Pa., school board.
U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis in Philadelphia approved the agreement yesterday. It settles a lawsuit filed by a former school board candidate.
All nine board members in the Bethlehem Area School District are currently elected at-large. The agreement creates three geographic seats, including one in an area where voting-age Hispanics make up nearly 40 percent of the population. Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the student body.
Plaintiffs in the 2006 lawsuit said the previous methods of electing the board were keeping Hispanics from being elected. They sued after the district sidestepped two Hispanic candidates and instead appointed a white man to fill a vacancy.
- AP
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