Baltimore County Public Schools may have found a way to make redistricting much less of a hassle — some of the time.
Creating new school attendance zones usually falls in the laps of a committee mostly filled with parents, who spend months in a series of two-hour meetings on school nights. It’s a long, often fraught and emotional process to decide which children have to change schools to relieve overcrowding.
But now, if a small number of students have to be transferred and a low number of schools are involved, the superintendent can bypass the committee, potentially speeding up the process.
In that case, the school system’s Office of Strategic Planning can draft a boundary change for the superintendent to consider. The public will still have a chance to view the draft and give input through public information sessions, a survey, and a public hearing held by the school board, and the board still has final approval over the new map.
The change — called an administrative review — was introduced at a school board meeting last week, and a document spelled out the details. Gboyinde Onijala, spokesperson for the school system, said the superintendent made the change based on feedback from board members. Board chair Tiara Booker-Dwyer did not immediately return a request for comment.
That abbreviated process more closely mirrors redistricting in other Maryland school systems, like Anne Arundel County, where boundary changes are in the hands of the superintendent, rather than parents.
Redistricting, referred to as a boundary study, is a common occurrence in Baltimore County. The school system’s largest involved 19 schools, and 77 people sat on the committee.
Three boundary studies are happening right now. Two of them could have qualified for an administrative review, if, instead, they had been created in time.
Catonville’s Holly Manor boundary study involves only two schools. Several homes on Beaumont Avenue are zoned for Hillcrest Elementary School, while the rest of the street and community attend Westchester Elementary School. It has two committee meetings scheduled for September and November and nine people on the committee.
White Marsh’s Greenleigh community also only involves two schools, Chase and Vincent Farm elementary schools, and a nine-person committee. The majority of Greenleigh residents are zoned for Vincent Farm Elementary. However, a small, unbuilt section of the neighborhood falls within Chase Elementary boundaries. The committee has to decide during its September and November meetings how to relocate that area within the boundaries of Vincent Farms before students move in.
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