The construction of four new elementary schools in northwest Baltimore County is prompting the school district to redraw attendance boundaries.

Wednesday night at Milford Mill Academy, a committee of principals, teachers, staff and parents from the impacted schools met to discuss priorities during the process.

The rezoning concerns nine elementary schools — Church Lane, Deer Park, Hernwood, Lyons Mill, New Town, Randallstown, Scotts Branch, Winand and Woodholme. The district also says it plans to relocate programs for 3- and 4-year-olds currently at Campfield Early Learning Center to elementary schools. The new boundaries would take effect in the 2025-26 school year.

Bedford and Summit Park elementary schools opened new buildings this year while a new Deer Park Elementary is expected to open next September and a new Scotts Branch Elementary is expected to open in September 2026.

According to a presentation from James Cooper, a consultant from Cropper GIS who the district hired to facilitate the process, if the boundaries stay the same, the new Deer Park building would be under capacity by 281 students and Church Lane would be under capacity by 92 students. Meanwhile, New Town would over capacity by 178 students and Woodholme would be over capacity by 112 students.

Cooper said capacity relief is the “driving factor” of the rezoning process and asked attendees to be mindful of continuity between elementary and middle school zones.

“Does the elementary school feed 100% into one middle school? If it does split into two, 50-50 is ideal. If it fills 90% into middle school A and 10% in middle school B, that’s not ideal because you want students to migrate to middle school with their peers and friends,” Cooper said.

Cooper presented two draft maps, one that prioritizes “maintaining or increasing the diversity among schools to reflect diversity of the region and school system,” and a second that prioritizes minimizing the impact of transportation and pedestrian patterns for students.

The two options largely differ over which students would attend the new Deer Park building.

The first option would zone Hernwood for the entire western edge of the county. The second option would cut off Hernwood’s zone at Liberty Road, and expand Deer Park’s zone to include the northwest corner of the county. The first option would also push Deer Park’s boundary within blocks south of Lyons Mill, while the second option would give a few of those neighborhoods to Lyons Mill. The two schools are less than a mile apart.

The first option would also set the northeast edge of Lyons Mill’s zone at Reisterstown Road while the second option would set the school’s northeast boundary at Interstate 795 and give all the area around Reisterstown Road to Woodholme. To compensate, Woodholme would cede a few neighborhoods off McDonogh Road to Church Lane.

Woodholme Principal Julie McDivitt said the first option set a boundary in the middle of an apartment complex where many of her students live.

“I don’t like splitting an apartment complex. I don’t think that would be well received, so I think that’s an important note on option one,” McDivitt said.

The committee, which has 10 principals, 10 teachers or other staff representatives and 20 parents, will meet again Sept. 25, Oct. 9 and Oct. 23 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Milford Mill Academy cafeteria. The school board will vote on the final map in March.