Redistricting Options for Elementary Schools Coming to Vote

From the AACPS Communications Office:

The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will vote on which redistricting options for several Annapolis-area schools should be taken to a public hearing.

The action should come at the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 7, at the Parham Building, 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.

At its Dec. 10 meeting, theboard received Superintendent George Arlotto’s recommendations on three redistricting issues studied by a citizen-led Annapolis Area Redistricting Committee earlier this year. Arlotto charged the committee with examining:

• Options to allocate all students living on the United States Naval Academy campus located south of the Severn River to either Annapolis Elementary or West Annapolis Elementary.
• Options to adjust the boundary between Mills-Parole Elementary and Edgewater Elementary to possibly reallocate properties along Admiral Cochrane Drive (including Knights of Columbus property) to Mills-Parole Elementary.
• Options to alleviate, to the extent possible, overcrowding at Tyler Heights Elementary School by utilizing capacity increases through future construction projects at Eastport and Georgetown East elementary schools.

Arlotto is recommending no changes with regard to Naval Academy students or properties along Admiral Cochrane Drive. Those recommendations are identical to the ones arrived at by the committee, which was made up of parents and community members of 12 potentially impacted schools.

With regard to reducing overcrowding at Tyler Heights, Arlotto is recommending a plan examined and narrowly rejected by the committee. It would shift approximately 150 students from the Reserve at Quiet Waters neighborhood from Tyler Heights to Georgetown East, and approximately 48 students from the Harbor House neighborhood from Tyler Heights to Eastport. Those shifts would take effect in August 2016, after additions at Georgetown East and Eastport are complete.

The changes, if approved by the Board, would mean that Tyler Heights would go from its current 37 percent over capacity to 6 percent over capacity in August 2016, while Georgetown East and Eastport would remain under capacity.

Additional redistricting measures will be considered when renovation projects at Hillsmere and Tyler Heights are completed. Both are in the current six-year Capital Improvement Plan.

The Board has the ability to add alternative options to consider at a public hearing. The date of the hearing has not yet been set but under Board policy, a redistricting plan must be adopted by April 30, 2015.

A complete agenda for the meeting and more information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website, www.aacps.org, in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab.

The general session of Wednesday’s Board meeting will be broadcast live on AACPS-TV, which can be found on Channel 96 on Comcast and Broadstripe, and Channel 36 on Verizon. High definition broadcasts can be seen on Channel 996 on Comcast and Channel 496 on Broadstripe. Rebroadcasts are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. the day after the meeting and 2:00 p.m. on subsequent Sundays.