The process is to accommodate two new schools scheduled to open in the future
Frederick, Md (KM). Redistricting ins underway in the Linganore, Oakdale and Urbana High School feeder areas located in the southeastern part of Frederick County.
Frederick County Board of Education President Brad Young, who was a recent guest on WFMD’s “Success Happens,” said one of the reasons for the process is to accommodate a new Urbana Elementary School which is set to open next year. The old Urbana Elementary was demolished and a new facility is being constructed. Meanwhile, the students are being educated at the Sugarloaf Elementary School building. When Urbana Elementary opens, Sugarloaf Elementary will develop its own identity as a school.
“We’re also building a new elementary which now has a name, Blue Heron Elementary School, which will be over off of Gas House Pike,” says Young. “And as a result of that, we have to redistrict to determine which students will go to those two new schools.”
Young says the School System staff, in working with a consultant, has come up with several options. Superintendent Dr. Theresa Alban will develop her own plan which will be presented to the Board of Education in September. After that, the Board will schedule three public hearings on the plan. “At that point, then we’ll take feedback at a meeting on September 25th, and ultimately take action on October 16th is when we will vote on a final plan. Once that plan has been voted on, then it will implemented the following school year as the new schools open,” he says.
Young says the ideal redistricting plan is to keep most kids from the same communities attending the same schools from elementary to high school. “Unfortunately what’s happened is because the county has grown so much and it’s grown in concentrated areas, it’s very difficult to do that,” he says. “So you may end half of one elementary school going to one middle school, and the other half going to another. They may reunite back in high school, or they may not.”
In addition, Young says the School System doesn’t redistrict too often. “We don’t want redistrict and move either this year, and in two years later, move you again. There are counties and states that will do that will that will redistrict almost every year, and that becomes troublesome,” says Young.
The last time Frederick County Public Schools did a redistricting was two years ago to accommodate the opening of Butterfly Ridge Elementary School in Frederick, which is about a block away from Hillcrest Elementary School.
Young says buying a home in a specific neighborhood doesn’t mean your children will attend a specific school. “There is no a guarantee that your kid goes to X school when you buy a house because it’s always subject to redistricting,” he says. “When people do buy houses to be in certain school districts, it’s not a guarantee.”
Information on the redistricting process is available at www.fcps.org/facilities.
By Kevin McManus