Howard County parents already are worrying about high school boundary line changes that are not due to take place until fall of 1996 under a school system redistricting proposal.
Their concerns center on the academic and social impact on students who would have to be uprooted, especially those in the upper grades. The school system has not yet said which grade levels would be affected by the changes.
"I really think juniors should stay at their school," said Carol Caizzo, immediate past president of Mount Hebron High School's PTSA. "It's very important for them because they have established themselves at that school. When they move to another school, it's going to affect extracurricular activities, which is important to colleges."
But the majority of parents don't mind transferring students in the upper grades to different schools, according to Associate Superintendent Maurice Kalin. They understand that schools with too few students would have problems with limited class selection and resources, he said.
"If we were to move [upperclassmen], it would be because of severe overcrowding," said Dr. Kalin.
The high school redistricting proposals are part of a larger plan being presented this year to transfer students in various grade levels because of crowding and new school openings.
Starting this September, school officials also propose to redistrict hundreds of students attending Ellicott Mills and Mayfield Woods middle schools to accommodate the opening of Elkridge Landing Middle School in the fall.
Also in September, school officials want to redistrict 75 elementary school students in the Columbia Gateway area to Jeffers Hill Elementary School to alleviate crowding at Guilford Elementary School.
The school board is unlikely to vote on the high school proposals during this year's redistricting process, though parents can comment on them at a public hearing March 7. The board is expected to vote on the elementary and middle school proposals March 23.
School officials say they issued the high school proposal a year early to prepare parents and students for the wide-reaching changes expected as a result of the opening of two new high schools: River Hill in Clarksville and Long Reach in east Columbia.
Each school will open with space for 1,400 students, with 300 of those spaces in each school reserved for the county's new technology education program.
Also that year, Wilde Lake High School will reopen with a new building and a 750-seat performing arts theater, the product of a community-school-government partnership.
"A great deal of planning has gone into the 1996 redistricting," said Dr. Kalin. "We've been talking about this for three years now. And we have had an information dissemination committee working this year getting information to the schools regarding service areas."
Among the proposals for the high school level in fall 1996:
* Atholton High School: Students who live west of Route 108 or in the Pointers Run area would transfer to River Hill High School.
* Centennial High School: Students who live in the Columbia Hills area would transfer to Howard High School.
* Glenelg High School: Students who live east of Green Bridge, Ten Oaks and Triadelphia roads would move to River Hill, as would students who live south of Route 144 between Triadelphia Road and the Centennial boundary line.
* Hammond High School: Hope well neighborhood students would transfer to Oakland Mills High School.
* Howard High School: Students who live in Kendall Ridge and east of Ilchester Road and Snowden River Parkway would go to Long Reach High School.
* Mount Hebron High School: Students who live south of Route 40 and Sucker Branch would be redistricted to Centennial. Students who live south of Main Street in Ellicott City would attend Howard.
* Oakland Mills High School: Students who live in Hopewell in Hammond's district would attend Oakland Mills.