Schools

Committee Meets to Tackle Crofton School Redistricting

The 16-member group held its first session to explore ways to reduce crowding at Nantucket Elementary School.

Nantucket Elementary School is only five years old, but it's already too crowded. 

A committee assigned to address this problem met for the first time Monday and will explore redistricting options that could impact all of the schools in the Crofton area. 

The 16-member group includes two parents from each of the four elementary schools in Crofton, plus Arundel Middle, Crofton Middle, Arundel High and South River High. All were appointed by their respective principals.

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The committee's charge appears to be a simple one: shift some students who now attend Nantucket to nearby schools with available capacity. 

Nantucket currently has 819 students for 2012, with a capacity of 684. By 2017, it will be at 127 percent capacity. Other schools in the area will have capacity, especially after new renovations and expansions at Crofton Meadows Elementary and Crofton Elementary. 

Find out what's happening in Croftonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"As far as layout, it's a simplistic move of taking students from Nantucket to somewhere else," said Chuck Yocum, the specialist in demographic planning for Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Monday night's meeting, held in the cafeteria of Nantucket Elementary, featured about 100 parents and other residents from the area. 

Kate Schaeffer has three boys at Nantucket. 

"I love [the school] and I love the community that's been built, but it is overcrowded," she said. "I think there are probably lines that are going to come out and make sense, but it's the emotional part that is going to be the challenge."

The redistricting committee will also be asked to draw a feeder area for a proposed elementary school to be located to the south of the new Waugh Chapel Towne Centre. School officials are negotiating with developers on a construction agreement for Evergreen Elementary, which would accommodate as many as 700 students. Koch Homes and Classic Communities Corp. have offered to foot the $38.2 million price tag for the school in order to accommodate students from its Two Rivers housing development.  

"If there's any complexity to this, it's trying to establish a boundary for a school that we don't know if the board is going to accept yet," Yocum said. 

The redistricting committee will meet as many as five more times, each on Tuesday nights. Its next meeting is on Oct. 9 at Crofton Meadows Elementary.

The group has until Nov. 12 to make a recommendation to Superintendent Kevin Maxwell, who has the right to accept it, amend it or reject it. He will then submit a proposal to the Board of Education by December. The school board has the right to hear any other proposals from the public and must vote on a plan by April 30. 

Check back with Patch for additional coverage of the redistricting issue, including more details on enrollment and talk of a new high school in Crofton.


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