Schools look at district lines
Martirano, board want countywide assessment to address capacity
The Howard County school board unanimously approved a measure directing Superintendent Michael Martirano to begin a comprehensive redistricting process for all grade levels across the school system.
Any redistricting plan that emerges would not take effect until the 2020-2021 school year.
Martirano agreed with the sevenmember board on the decision, saying redistricting is needed to address countywide student enrollment.
“I’m here tonight as our superintendent saying we can only manage this so much longer,” Martirano said at a Jan. 24 meeting of the board. “I see no other option because of my concern with where we are at this critical tipping point.”
The 77-school district has nearly 58,000 students enrolled for the 2018- 2019 academic year. An enrollment growth of 850 students across the district is being projected for the upcoming school year, according to school officials.
Last fall the board decided against redrawing attendance boundaries for the 2019-2020 academic year, and instead pursued adding or expanding specialty programs that would attract students to other schools.
Earlier this month, officials announced a plan to allow students who currently attend Centennial or Howard high schools to voluntary transfer to either Glenelg or Marriotts Ridge beginning in the fall as a means of helping ease crowding at Howard and Centennial, the system’s two most crowded high schools.
Officials said between 450 and 500 students from Howard and nearly 300 Centennial students would need to transfer to offset crowding.
But issues with school capacity are being experienced elsewhere. Throughout the system 220 relocatable, or portable, classrooms are “strategically placed” to alleviate crowding. With those portable classrooms in place, all county schools are below 110 percent of capacity levels, Martirano said.
It would cost more than $150 million to remove all the portable classrooms and replace the structures with brick and mortar buildings, he said.
Martirano also said it’s important to note that “an overcrowded school does not necessarily mean the classroom is overcrowded.” He said the school system maintains staffing ratios in all schools.
While some schools are crowded, there are empty seats in others. There are nearly 3,000 available seats “sprinkled across grade levels,” according to school system data. That figure matches the nearly 3,000 seats that officials say are needed in all grade level schools.
Of the county’s 42 elementary schools, there are 1,527 seats available while 1,224 are needed. In Howard’s 20 middle See SCHOOLS, page 6
Any redistricting plan that emerges would not take effect until the 2020-2021 school year.
Martirano agreed with the sevenmember board on the decision, saying redistricting is needed to address countywide student enrollment.
“I’m here tonight as our superintendent saying we can only manage this so much longer,” Martirano said at a Jan. 24 meeting of the board. “I see no other option because of my concern with where we are at this critical tipping point.”
The 77-school district has nearly 58,000 students enrolled for the 2018- 2019 academic year. An enrollment growth of 850 students across the district is being projected for the upcoming school year, according to school officials.
Last fall the board decided against redrawing attendance boundaries for the 2019-2020 academic year, and instead pursued adding or expanding specialty programs that would attract students to other schools.
Earlier this month, officials announced a plan to allow students who currently attend Centennial or Howard high schools to voluntary transfer to either Glenelg or Marriotts Ridge beginning in the fall as a means of helping ease crowding at Howard and Centennial, the system’s two most crowded high schools.
Officials said between 450 and 500 students from Howard and nearly 300 Centennial students would need to transfer to offset crowding.
But issues with school capacity are being experienced elsewhere. Throughout the system 220 relocatable, or portable, classrooms are “strategically placed” to alleviate crowding. With those portable classrooms in place, all county schools are below 110 percent of capacity levels, Martirano said.
It would cost more than $150 million to remove all the portable classrooms and replace the structures with brick and mortar buildings, he said.
Martirano also said it’s important to note that “an overcrowded school does not necessarily mean the classroom is overcrowded.” He said the school system maintains staffing ratios in all schools.
While some schools are crowded, there are empty seats in others. There are nearly 3,000 available seats “sprinkled across grade levels,” according to school system data. That figure matches the nearly 3,000 seats that officials say are needed in all grade level schools.
Of the county’s 42 elementary schools, there are 1,527 seats available while 1,224 are needed. In Howard’s 20 middle See SCHOOLS, page 6
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