A day after taking part in a workshop to get more information and answer questions about the redistricting process next week, the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will decide what Crofton area redistricting proposals it will take to public hearing.
The January 22 public workshop will set the stage for the Board’s January 23 meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Board Room of the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.
At its December 5, 2018, meeting, the Board was presented with Superintendent George Arlotto’s recommendation regarding the redistricting of school boundaries to form an attendance area for the Crofton area. The Board had been scheduled to vote on which proposal or proposals to move forward at its January 9, 2019, meeting, but instead asked to hold a workshop with staff to better understand the process.
Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation generally aligned with that crafted by the Crofton Area Redistricting Committee with exception of the following:
- All boundary shifts will occur in the 2020-2021 school year.
- There is no recommended grandfathering.
The committee had originally recommended that some boundary shifts take effect in the 2019-2020 school year, with a two-year grandfathering.
Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation would:
- redistrict all Crofton Elementary School and Crofton Middle School students in the Two Rivers/Forks of the Patuxent and Waugh Chapel communities temporarily to Piney Orchard Elementary School and Arundel Middle School beginning in the 2020-2021 school year, until West County Elementary School opens in the Arundel feeder system. These students will continue to attend Arundel High School.
- redistrict the Riverwalk at Crofton community to Crofton Woods Elementary School, Crofton Middle School and Crofton Area High School beginning in the 2020-2021 school year (there are no students currently living in this area.)
- redistrict all Arundel High School students living in the Nantucket, Crofton Meadows, and Crofton elementary school attendance zones on the east side of Route 3 to Crofton Area High School beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. These students would continue to attend Crofton Middle School.
- redistrict all South River High School students in the Crofton Meadows and Crofton Woods elementary school attendance zones to Crofton Area High School beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. These students would continue to attend Crofton Middle School.
- not include grandfathering provisions at any schools.
The January 22 redistricting workshop runs from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Board Room.
The Board can choose to move Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation forward, choose others developed by the committee, or formulate one of its own to take to public hearing for comment.
School system staff will conduct a briefing at which the public can get answers to questions regarding the plan or plans moved forward.
Dates for the briefing and hearings will be announced in the near future.
GLOBAL COMMUNITY CITIZENSHIP COURSE
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the Board will discuss for the second time changes to a policy and administrative regulation that would expand the Global Community Citizenship Course, in place at Arundel High School for the last two years, to all county high schools. The regulation calls for the course, which is designed to explore the values and diversity of our local, national, and global communities and foster acceptance and inclusion of all people, to become a graduation requirement for students beginning with those who are ninth-graders in the 2019-2020 school year.
The Board will meet in a public session at 5:30 p.m. for the sole purpose of voting to immediately 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 public session of the meeting will resume at 7 p.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 p.m. the day after the meeting and 2 p.m. on subsequent Sundays.
The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.