The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County is scheduled to vote on what redistricting proposals to take to a public hearing at its next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, January 10, 2018. The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.
Superintendent George Arlotto has presented two redistricting recommendations, one concerning the feeder pattern for Maryland City Elementary School students and the other to balance enrollment at the Ferndale Early Education Center and George Cromwell and Hilltop elementary schools.
The Maryland City plan recommended by Dr. Arlotto would shift students who live in that attendance zone from MacArthur Middle School to Meade Middle School, effective in the 2018-2019 school year. Those students would continue to attend Meade High School. Current seventh-graders at MacArthur Middle School who live in the Maryland City Elementary School attendance zone would have the option of remaining at MacArthur Middle School for their eighth-grade year.
The plan is identical to that recommended by a committee of community residents.
Dr. Arlotto’s other proposal would take effect in the 2020-2021 school year. It would shift kindergarten students from the Ferndale Early Education Center to the newly revitalized George Cromwell Elementary School and also move prekindergarten students from Hilltop Elementary School to Ferndale.
The plan is nearly identical to that recommended by a committee of community residents.
The vote to take plans to public hearing is the next step in a lengthy public process. After the hearings, the Board must approve by April 30 any plan it wishes to enact in the coming school year.
The Board will meet at 8:30 a.m. to vote to go into closed session, during which time it will discuss confidential matters as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act including, but not limited to, legal advice, personnel, and negotiations. Closed session is not open to the public. The general session of the meeting, which is open to the public, starts at 10 a.m.
A complete agenda for the meeting accompanies this news release. More information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website 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, Channel 496 on Broadstripe, and Channel 1961 on Verizon. Rebroadcasts are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. the day after the meeting and 2:00 p.m. on subsequent Sundays.
The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.
Archived videos of Board meetings are also posted online.