School Board Approves Redistricting Plan

The Howard County Board of Education approved a plan that will shift 1,860 elementary students next year to alleviate overcrowding and fill a new elementary school opening on Ducketts Lane in Elkridge.

The plan, BOE 9, was put together earlier in the week by the board using parts of Superintendent Renee Foose's plan and the area attendance committee's plan that was created over several months, according to a report in Explore Howard.

The Board approved the plan by a 5-2 vote with Brian Meshkin and Cindy Vaillancourt voting against it.

Here's how the plan will work, according to board documents:

• Bellows Spring will send 47 students to Ilchester ES, 132 students to the new elementary school and 121 students to Waterloo ES. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 125.6 percent, after redistricting would be 86.2 percent)
• Deep Run will send 164 students to Rockburn ES (Projected capacity before redistricting - 135.7 percent, after redistricting - 108.7 percent)
• Elkridge Elementary will send 75 students to the new elementary school. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 115 percent, after redistricting - 105 percent)
• Hollifield will send 54 students to St. Johns Lane and receive 110 students from Veterans Elementary. (projected capacity before redistricting - 93.5 percent, after redistricting - 101.6 percent)
• Ilchester will receive 47 students from Bellows Spring. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 99.8 percent, after redistricting - 107.5 percent)
• Jeffers Hill will receive 38 students from Waterloo. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 87.6 percent, after redistricting - 96.7 percent)
• Ducketts Lane New Elementary School will receive 132 students from Bellows Spring, 75 from Elkridge, 156 from Rockburn and 187 from Waterloo. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 0 percent, after redistricting - 91.7 percent)
• Northfield will receive 132 students from Thunder Hill. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 90.8 percent, after redistricting - 110.4 percent)
• Phelps Luck will send 165 students to Thunder Hill. (projected capacity before redistricting - 114.5 percent, after redistricting - 88.8 percent)
• Rockburn will send 187 students to the new elementary school and receive 164 students from Deep Run. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 96 percent, after redistricting - 97.2 percent)
• St. Johns Lane will receive 54 students from Hollifield Station, 167 students from Veterans and will send 152 students to Waverly. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 93.5 percent, after redistricting - 105 percent)
• Stevens Forest will receive 160 students from Talbott Springs. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 68.6 percent, after redistricting - 105.5 percent)
• Talbott Springs will send 160 students to Stevens Forest. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 145.6 percent, after redistricting - 109.5 percent)
• Thunder Hill will send 132 students to Northfield and receive 165 students from Phelps Luck. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 87.2 percent, after redistricting - 94.2 percent)
• Veterans will send 110 students to Hollifield Station and 167 students to St. Johns Lane. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 133.4 percent, after redistricting - 98.2 percent)
• Waterloo will send 38 students to Jeffers Hill and 187 to the new elementary school. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 117.3 percent, after redistricting - 99.8 percent)
• Waverly will receive 152 students from St. Johns Lane. (Projected capacity before redistricting - 81.8 percent, after redistricting - 104.3 percent)

In addition, the plan includes the motions for streets that will be shifted and a map of polygons encompassing neighborhoods that will be transferred to new schools. Patch has attached those documents in the gallery in the upper right.

Explore Howard reported that Foose said she wanted to find a way to cure overcrowding and unbalanced capacity within three years.

Local blogger, Lisa Schlossnagle, who has been writing about the redistricting debate, wrote in a recent blog post that three years may be too long, as the school system will be opening up a new middle school in 2014.

"So they will have to draw the boundary lines for that next year," wrote Schlossnagle. "Next year."

Related Articles

• Poll: How Will School Redistricting Affect Communities?
• Report: Foose Asks Staff to Revisit Redistricting Plan

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