2014 Redistricting: Not Comprehensive Enough

 

The Howard County Public School just finished a new round of redistricting for the 2014-2015 School Year. This was done in conjunction with the new Middle School (MS#20) set to open that same year. The Middle School Districts were tweaked to relieve overcrowding in the Northeast and Southeast portions of the County which is the purpose of MS#20.  (Note in the maps MS#20 is referred to as Oxford Square my preferred name for it)

However, there are still issues with feeder systems and lingering problems with balanced enrollment and capacity that I feel still need to be addressed. That is why I have come out with a plan that will address these issues at primarily the Middle School level and a little bit at the Elementary level that is truly comprehensive. I will break up each region of the County and address their needs individually.

First there's the Southeast, here I don't really have complaints. I think the move of the Murray Hill Road area from Patuxent Valley to Hammond MS fits perfectly with the 2012 move from Atholton ES to Hammond ES.

I also agree with the move of the Guilford Elementary District from Patuxent Valley to MS #20 as well as the move from Patuxent Valley to Owen Brown (Lake Elkhorn) This allows for Guilford to only feed into two Middle Schools instead of three

This leaves Patuxent Valley open to provide relief to the over crowded Murray Hill. It was decided that the Forest Ridge feed to Murray Hill would close and all Students from Forest Ridge will attend Patuxent Valley. 

Another move I'm happy with. This got rid of a small section of Emerson that attends Murray Hill Middle and Hammond High as well. In 2015 some changes will have to made on the High School level.

In the west, there is a lot of open capacity. For quite a few years there's been talk of closing the aging and under populated West Friendship Elementary. I say do it already!  Bushy Park is also under capacity and can absorb West Friendship with relative ease. This will eliminate an old building that dates back to 1925 as well as fully utilizing a brand new School that opened in 2007 that was always under capacity. 

On the Middle School Frontier, the west also has capacity to spare. That's why when I read that that only part of the Fulton ES/ Hammond MS feed would be eliminated I was a tad confused. The reason being that they didn't want to have over crowding at Lime Kiln. I agree that moving kids from one crowded School to another is not a good move but the western edges of the Lime Kiln District can be moved to under crowded Schools to create a good feeder system.

First there's Clarksville MS. Enrollment is dropping at this School and is projected to continue this trend. That's why I have opted to redistrict a large portion of what was redistricted in 2012 from Fulton to Pointers Run to Clarksville MS. The only part of Pointers Run remaining at Lime Kiln is the portion attending Reservoir HS. 

On the same note, in 2012 part of Fulton was moved to Dayton Oaks. Dayton Oaks had been another large new School built in the west that hasn't had the growth originally projected. This move from Fulton has been a big help. However, the School is split between two Middle Schools. As a result, in order to stop potential overcrowding at Lime Kiln, I have opted to redistrict all students from Dayton Oaks currently in the Lime Kiln District into Folly Quarter, where the vast majority of Dayton Oaks Students attend Middle School. Like Clarksville MS, Folly Quarter is under crowded and can absorb additional Students with relative ease.

Next, there's the Northern region of the County. There is projected to be significant over crowding at the four Northern Middle Schools (Burleigh Manor, Dunloggin, Mount View and Patapsco) in the coming years. This may result in Capital Projects being done (I hope it does) but in the mean time, we can redistrict to balance out feeds.

With this past year's redistricting, St. Johns Lane and Holliefield Station no longer feed solely into Patapsco. There are small feeds to Dunloggin in each School. As a result I have opted to redistrict the Kaiser Park/Howard's Ridge Community to Patapsco. 

The same move will occur to the Ellicott Grove/Governor's Run Community. After this, both St. Johns Lane and Holliefield Station will feed solely into Patapsco. 

In order for Patapsco to handle this influx of new Students, I have opted to redistrict the feed that was redistricted at the Elementary level from St. Johns Lane to Waverly from Patapsco to Mount View. This will restore the feed that all Students attending Waverly will attend Mount View.

Finally we come to Burleigh Manor. Some tweaking to the Burleigh Manor District is necessary to balance out the numbers at Dunloggin and Mount View. 

Therefore, I have opted to redistrict the Chatham Gardens Community from Burleigh Manor to Dunloggin and the Brantwood/King's Gift Community from Mount View to Burleigh Manor.

Next we come to the northeast. This is where the most drastic redistricting for 2014 has occurred. Rather than redistricting a larger portion of Elkridge Landing to MS#20 and back filling it with Bonnie Branch Students, I have opted to leave most of those Students at Elkridge Landing and redistrict only the Belmont Station and Oxford Square Communities to MS#20.

The real relief for Elkridge Landing is west of I-95. The Lynwood Square/Rockburn/Shady Oak Communities will all be redistricted to Bonnie Branch. Obviously, the Communities of the Rockburn Township and Grovemont will remain at Bonnie Branch as a result. 

The most drastic change occurs with Mayfield Woods. As of right now Mayfield Woods has a large population and is currently over crowded with projections predicting that the population will grow drastically. As a result I have opted to redistrict a larger portion of Mayfield Woods to MS#20. In addition to the new Route 1 Communities, I have included the Deep Run Mobile Home Community to be included in MS#20's District The Old Highgate Road Community will remain at Mayfield Woods.

I purposefully over redistricted from Mayfield Woods so I can in turn redistrict other Students to Mayfield Woods, Students living in Long Reach to be exact. Some Long Reach Students already attend Mayfield Woods but currently there's an island that consists of Phelps Luck, a little bit of Locust Park, and a little bit of Kendall Ridge that attends Bonnie Branch and is slated to remain there. Instead, I have opted to redistrict this island to Mayfield Woods to get rid of the island and have Phelps Luck ES feed only into one Middle School; Mayfield Woods.

Seeing as the West Columbia Middle Schools are fine as they are given that Wilde Lake MS will be rebuilt, our last region of the County is East Columbia. One crowded School in the northeast that was not addressed was/is Ellicott Mills. 

Enrollment has been sky rocketing at Ellicott Mills and is projected to continue doing so. As a result, I have opted to redistrict the Mont Joy, Columbia 100 Parkway, and Glenmont to Oakland Mills MS. This was done to up enrollment at Oakland Mills to so that when it comes time to renovate Oakland Mills, the County feels the need to build a new Oakland Mills MS just like they're doing with Wilde Lake. 

Also in East Columbia is Owen Brown/Lake Elkhorn MS. Currently this School is under crowded. This has been partially addressed by redistricting a small portion from Patuxent Valley but it wasn't enough. To fix this, I have opted to redistrict the Sewells Orchard Community from Oakland Mills MS to Owen Brown/Lake Elkhorn. 

That concludes my 2014 Redistricting Plan. I feel that it addresses the problems of feeder systems and over/under crowding Countywide. The 2014 plan put forth by the County may not be comprehensive enough, but I feel that this one is.