The Anne Arundel County school board late Wednesday finalized a redistricting plan that reassigns more than 700 children to new schools next fall.

Officials approved the proposal on a 5-3 vote despite opposition from some parents in Gambrills and Riva who pleaded with the board in a pair of recent community meetings to spare their children from disruption.

Board members who supported the plan say the changes, however unpopular, are necessary to reduce overcrowding at some South County schools.

“Are we doing something here that sets those students up to do better?” board member Joanna Bache Tobin asked. “In the end, that has to be our goal.”

Board members who opposed the plan say it unfairly rips students from their communities, threatens families’ access to needed before- and after-care slots, and forces students to travel to new schools on congested roads. Even Bill Heiser, the district’s chief operating officer, said elements of the plan bother him.

“There is some unevenness with the logic being used right now,” Heiser said.

The nearly yearlong redistricting process frayed relationships among Anne Arundel school board members and within communities that will soon be split up. In recent weeks, angry families accused some board members and district staff of failing to understand the link among school enrollment, school funding and school construction.

Students repeatedly asked to be left alone.

“The board keeps saying this redistricting is about community, but you can’t preach community while you’re the one tearing it apart,” Crofton High student Cali Kwong said Monday. “That’s not leadership; that’s hypocrisy.”

Since February, when the district sought public comment on three school redistricting scenarios developed by the consulting firm WXY, the number of students at risk of switching schools has declined, increasing the chance that the painful process will need to be repeated in the coming years as the county’s population grows.

One of the consultant’s scenarios would have affected more than 3,000 students. And the plan unveiled this summer by Superintendent Mark Bedell would have affected up to 1,500 children. The plan adopted Wednesday impacts 731 students, many of whom attend Crofton schools.

Nearly 300 children who would otherwise matriculate from Nantucket Elementary to Crofton middle and high schools will be routed to Arundel middle and high schools. The plan also reassigns 100 Arundel students to MacArthur Middle School and Meade Senior High School.

Board members disagreed about reassigning the Gambrills students who attend Nantucket Elementary children to new middle and high schools. Some considered it the least disruptive way to reduce overcrowding in the Crofton attendance cluster. Others felt the Crofton school community deserves to stay whole and criticized the slight overcrowding that the plan creates at Arundel Middle.

“I can’t get behind this,” board member Dana Schallheim said. “My heart breaks.”

“I’m very disappointed, and I cannot support this plan,” board member Erica McFarland said.

At the lower level, the framework calls for moving 88 children from Belvedere Elementary to Arnold Elementary, 72 children from Odenton Elementary to Seven Oaks Elementary, 57 children from Tracey’s Elementary to Deale Elementary, and 54 children from Folger McKinsey Elementary to Severna Park Elementary.

The plan also calls for shifting three students from Lothian Elementary to Tracey’s Elementary and a single student from Piney Orchard Elementary to Odenton Elementary.

The changes mostly align with district projections that a dozen schools would be overcrowded by 2033 if the board took no action. Many parents, however, have criticized those projections as flawed, arguing the district should wait until updated enrollment projections are available.

Students who attend two schools the district expects to be overcrowded won’t be impacted by the plan. Waugh Chapel Elementary is slightly overcrowded and projected to remain so. Crofton Woods Elementary is projected to be overcrowded by nearly 100 students in 2033, a fact that seems to contradict the district’s redistricting goals.

Although the district initially considered reassigning as many as 300 Davidsonville Elementary students to schools in the South River and Southern attendance clusters, the newly approved plan moves only 27 students who live in Riva to Central Elementary, over their parents’ objections.

Board members did not respond to questions about why no Crofton Woods Elementary students are being reassigned. They also declined to explain how they determined which Davidsonville students should be reassigned to Central, the district’s newest five-star school.

Some Riva parents have accused Bedell and board members of advancing a plan influenced by well-connected Davidsonville parents that deprioritizes data, equity and transparency. The Davidsonville parents who advocated for their children to stay say they empathize with Riva families and reject the notion of special treatment.

Amanda Fisher, a Riva mother who opposes the plan, said she and her neighbors know their children will thrive in their new school, but they remain disappointed in the board’s decision.

“Tonight the board had every opportunity to pause, reassess, and come together to ensure this decision was grounded in integrity,” Fisher said. “Instead, many chose to move forward despite obvious issues raised.”

Bedell has made few public comments about redistricting since he unveiled his recommendations over the summer. But this week he criticized some parents’ recent messages and remarks on the plan as “intolerable.”

He said he would not allow members of the community to criticize the integrity, credentials or work ethic of district staff or board members, as some have in recent days.

“Our children are watching everything we do and say, on both sides of the dais,” Bedell said. “Please know there is no conspiracy. Our team is not incompetent. I understand the emotion, but let’s move forward and do it respectfully.”

Bedell on Wednesday vowed to implement the board’s will and acknowledged how difficult the process has been for Anne Arundel County families.

“I understand the pain people are going through,” Bedell said. “I don’t want to be up here having to do this and feel the way that I feel and hear the pain that’s coming from these families. But I don’t know another way.”