Dance assures that Loch Raven Elementary will not be demolished

Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance has offered his assurances that the Loch Raven Elementary School will not be demolished.

Dance wrote in response to an April 30 letter from County Councilman David Marks and members of the General Assembly who represent the Towson area.

"Let me assure you that we have gone on record that Loch Raven Elementary School will be a renovation/addition," he wrote. "There are no plans to demolish the building."

The 66-year-old school building hasn't welcomed elementary school students since 1982 but Dance last year proposed moving the children of Halstead Academy to a new school on the Loch Raven site.

Local and community officials have continued to express fears about demolishing the 1948 school, which currently operates as a community center and is protected as a historic landmark.

Towson area state and local officials wrote to Dance asking for assurances that the Loch Raven Elementary School building will be saved. The letter was signed by signed by Councilman David Marks, who represents Towson, Council Chairwoman Cathy Bevins; state Sen. Jim Brochin; and Dels. Sue Aumann, William Frank and Steve Lafferty, all of whom represent Towson.

Dance further said in his letter that the Board of Education's action at its April 22 meeting, accepting the site for construction fo the school, "was a requirement for consideration to be eligible for [Interagency Commission for Public School Construction] approval.

"I am pleased with this response and look forward to the upcoming dialogue with the Loch Raven Village community," Marks said in an email.

Lafferty has said that the Board of Public Works conditioned approval fo the renovation funding on retaining the building's historic integrity, according to Marks.