Boundary options studied for new Timonium school

Three hypothetical outcomes were examined Wednesday, Oct. 30, by the boundary study committee for the new elementary school in Mays Chapel, giving the committee its first look at how the new school might be districted.

Under most scenarios, the new school in Mays Chapel would be populated by students who live in the Cockeysville area and west of Interstate 83.

However, Matt Cropper, principal of Cropper GIS, who is leading the redistricting meetings, said all three were simply presented as options for the committee to examine before they create their own maps.

With two meetings under the committee's belt and much of the work ahead of them, committee Chairman Michael Quinn said the process was going well. Specifically, Quinn said the collective knowledge of members representing each community would help the group better examine the proposals.

Before he presented the maps, Cropper said that Sparks Elementary School did not factor into the scenarios due to the school's pending 200-seat addition. Cropper also said the aim was to create minimal impact to Hampton Elementary and West Towson Elementary, as those schools would likely be affected by additional seats planned for at Cromwell Valley Elementary. Because of that, each hypothetical outcome leaves West Towson 57 seats over capacity.

The below list summarizes which students would be moved from each school. To see specifics of the hypothetical proposals, interactive maps can be found at http://www.croppermap.com/bcpsredistricting/.

In each possibility, Hampton adds the students who attend West Towson that live east of York Road, and students from Timonium who live east of Charmuth Road and south of East Ridgely Road.

Sue Hershfeld, a committee member and principal of West Towson, warned that moving the West Towson students would go against the committee's goal of not moving children more than once.

"Those folks have already moved once three years ago [from Rodgers Forge Elementary] and there's a possibility they could move again," Hershfeld told Cropper during the meeting. "I don't want to move them too many times."

The committee is scheduled to meet at Cockeysville Middle twice more — Nov. 13 and 20 — before it presents to the community a set of possiblities at a Dec. 11 meeting at Dulaney High School.

Then, the group is scheduled to meet once more after the community meeting before the plan is presented to the Board of Education in February.