About 500 students who would otherwise attend William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary School will go to Abingdon Elementary when it opens in September under a proposed school redistricting map.

The new 600-student school will open next year, with students drawn from an areaalong I-95 bounded roughly by Singer Road to the north, Route 40 to the south, Route 136 to the east and Winters Run to the west.

The map was drawn up by a redistricting committee that included teachers, school administrators and parents from William Paca, Ring Factory, Riverside and William S. James elementaries.

This year, William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary School has 210 students over its capacity of 1,130.

If the attendance map were adopted, the school would be 92 students below capacity next year, the committee said.

Abingdon Elementary would open with 490 students, 110 below capacity.

Redistricting committee chairwoman Sherine High told the school board Monday night that that figure might be 50 to 60 higher as development continues in the attendance area.

HEARING SLATED

The Board of Education will conduct a public hearing on the school's attendance area Feb. 10 and has arranged a vote for that evening.

The public hearing begins 4:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Southampton Middle School, and the board will vote at its monthly meeting, scheduled in the same room at 7 p.m.