For Martinez, additional classroom funding and “curriculum alignment” (avoiding overlap or fragmentation in curriculum between elementary and high schools) are both ways to make the system run smoother and more effectively, and could be accomplished by redistricting.

Some school districts have already come to the commission with ideas about what they would and would not like to see happen with redistricting, and the commission encourages such input. Leyva cited Black Canyon City, whose board started looking at redistricting as soon as they found out the commission had been assembled. “Alhambra,” she said, “already came to one of our meetings.” The public is also invited to share concerns and suggestions. The commission has created the Web site www.ade.az.gov/sdrc specifically for this purpose, as well as an accompanying e‑mail address: SDRC_comments@azed.gov.

Lines of communication are already open and the commission wants to make sure they stay that way, because much of redistricting’s success depends on public approval. “There are no predetermined expectations,” said Martinez. Nor is there in place a formal redistricting procedure, which gives the group freedom to proceed as they determine appropriate in responding to the public.

Although commission members are very optimistic, they are aware of possible problems. “There’s potential like in any large‑scale public process – potential for misunderstanding – a lot of jargon involved. Communication is always a challenge,” Martinez admitted. Another issue, in his opinion, is people jumping to conclusions about the process itself. He feels it’s necessary to educate the public about the process and how the public can influence its outcome. The commission knows most any kind of change in established districts makes things difficult, and redistricting is no exception.

“I work with a lot of the rural school districts in Yavapai County, and there’s a lot of old‑time families that have been on school boards forever and they don’t want to see anything change,” Leyva cautions. “And that’s going to be a big issue because everything that we recommmend has to go to an election of the people. We need to make recommendations that people are going to agree with; otherwise, we’ve wasted two years.”

A few words that the public might hear floating around are “consolidation” and “unification,” Levya points out. “Consolidation is when two or more school districts combine but don’t necessarily offer K‑12, and with unification you have to offer instruction in K‑12,” she explains. “Politically they’re really ugly words–redistricting is the new buzz word. ‘Redistricting’ encompasses much better the number of factors going into redrawing district lines.”

“It’s significant that the terminology is ‘redistricting;’ it’s holistic–student achievement, population projections, budgets, bus lines, geography, history,” says Martinez.

Provided with guidelines from the legislature that help the commission formulate its specific charge, it is even moving beyond those suggestions to examine what Levya calls “the big picture.”

She is passionate about funding for education, and points out the difficulties within Arizona–an ideologically conservative state that doesn’t like raising taxes to pay for education. “But,” Levya predicts, “they’re going to have to soon. Our kids aren’t going to be able to do the jobs they need to do within our state.” She doubts that the lack of funding will ever be remedied until the legislature and governor decide that students deserve more money. “We’re one of the lowest achieving states for our students and the lowest funded,” she says.

Commission members are doing their homework. “We have really studied hard what we are required to look at by statute, discussing and deciding upon those data points that we need to be gathering, and how, from districts,” Martinez reported. The commission is working closely with the Arizona Department of Education. “Ultimately,” he explains, “we will be taking most if not all of that data in to the Arizona State University Decision Theatre. It’s almost as if that facility was designed for the complexities of this situation.”

Over the next two years, the commission and the public must work together to decide what’s best for Arizona’s schools, creating recommendations to pass on to the state’s governing bodies. With all the responsibility placed upon the redistricting commission, it seems Leyva is right: the end of 2007 doesn’t seem that far away.