School buses line up outside of The Academy @ Shawnee on the first day of school for Jefferson County Public Schools.Two candidates seeking seats on the Jefferson County Board of Education filed to run for districts they don’t live in, according to an analysis by LPM News.In their filings with the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office, District 3 candidate Gay Perry-Adelmann and District 5 candidate TraShaun Spencer listed home addresses outside the districts they want to represent. Under state law a school board member must live in their own district.Perry-Adelmann’s listed address is in District 2, and Spencer’s is in District 1, according to a board district lookup tool on JCPS’ website and a review of a recent state law that reshaped the district’s boundaries.Metadata shows the district’s lookup tool was last edited May 6, weeks before the June 2 filing deadline.Spencer is aware she is running for a district that she doesn’t live in. She said she believed a recent law had omitted that residency requirement and was excited to run in District 5 because, as a graduate of Southern High School, she felt she had “more of a connection” to it.“It's just my interpretation,” Spencer said. “I have not consulted with an attorney.”Taylor Brown, general counsel for the Kentucky State Board of Elections, confirmed that she is mistaken. He cited a section of state law that says a candidate for school board must be “a voter of the district for which he or she is elected.”Spencer said she has no intention of dropping out of the race. She said she will also apply for a vacant at-large seat with the board of education created by the departure of James Craig in June.Perry-Adelmann did not respond to a call for comment by our deadline.To remove someone from a ballot, Brown told LPM it’s up to a voter or political opponent to challenge a candidacy in circuit court.State law allows voters to challenge the “bona fides,” or minimum qualifications, of any candidate seeking to represent them, including whether they qualify to hold office based on their address. Other candidates for the same seat can also file a challenge.Brown said a long line of legal precedent requires the county clerk to take the candidate’s filings “on their face” as valid.“If it says I live in Indiana, then obviously it’s not on its face valid,” he said. But outside of that kind of glaring evidence of ineligibility, Brown said, the clerk would have to accept a candidate’s nomination.This November’s JCBE election is an unusual one. Earlier this year, Kentucky state lawmakers restructured the boards in JCPS and Fayette County Public Schools. In JCPS, lawmakers consolidated the longstanding seven districts into five, and drew new boundaries that some feared could dilute Black voting power.When the measure to draw new school districts passed the Senate, Democrats – who all voted against it – said they hadn’t even seen them. Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill, but lawmakers overrode him.The new boundaries went into effect this spring. JCPS staff plucked board member names out of a jar at a May meeting to decide who would represent the restructured districts and who would serve as at-large members for the remainder of the year.Seats in those five newly drawn districts are all up for election this fall. Each race has drawn at least three candidates. LPM News verified all candidates but Perry-Adelmann and Spencer listed home addresses in the districts they’re running in.Perry-Adelmann’s address would have matched District 3, the district she is running for, under the previous map. But the new boundaries put her in District 2. Spencer’s address is in the wrong district under both old and new maps. Both of the candidates filed their forms in early June, right before the paperwork deadline.Three incumbents are running to retain their seats on the board. Gail Logan Strange is running in newly constituted District 1, which used to contain west Louisville, downtown and neighborhoods along River Road, but now also includes parts of the Highlands. Trevin Bass, who currently represents District 4 is running for election in the redrawn district, gathering neighborhoods along I-65 and communities in both east and west Louisville. Taylor Everett, who previously represented District 7, is now running for District 3, a large district encompassing much of east Louisville.All Candidates for Jefferson County Board of EducationDistrict 1Gail Logan StrangeAmina ShaleJody HurtDistrict 2Alante’ J. GainesRobert KahneLillian BrentsTim ShaughnessyPhil HamingDistrict 3Taylor EverettGay P. AdelmannNeil SeftorVeda PendletonDistrict 4Kimberly Ann VinegarTrevin BassMichelle E. PatrickDeja B. JacksonDistrict 5William E. SnawderBob DevoreCarrie DonovanTroy GardnerKyle N. KillebrewTraShaun Spencer ...read more read less