New Town High in Owings Mills will not be an exclusive magnet school, but instead will draw students from nearby communities, calming parents' fears that their children would be left out when Baltimore County opens the $35 million building in September.

Parents and community leaders from Randallstown and other northwest county neighborhoods were worried that the new school would become a magnet that would take applicants from throughout the county, shutting out area children and failing to relieve crowding in nearby high schools.

After reviewing the magnet proposal and other options, however, Superintendent Joe A. Hairston has decided to make New Town High a comprehensive school with a regular program of classes attended by students living in the area.

"A lot of the things you see here is reflective of what parents told us were important elements, attributes and qualities of an effective high school," said Principal Wayne M. Thibeault, who has been meeting with parents and students to discuss options for the school's academic program.

The plan, which has been in the works for a few months, was presented last night to the school board.

"It's wonderful," said Ella White Campbell, a community activist from Randallstown. "That's the only real way to deal with the overcrowding issues at the other schools."

According to the plan, the school's academic program will be organized around "career academies" -- similar to college majors -- in the humanities, math and science, business, and the social sciences. A student enrolled in the social sciences academy, for example, would take required classes as well as electives in economics and psychology.

"We want to help [students] crystallize their focus during high school, rather than getting out and saying, 'What do I want to do with my life?'" Thibeault said. "It helps the kids get a more personalized education."

Michael T. Franklin, a Randallstown father who is president of the PTA Council, said: "Adding the career academies really does away with the impression that some folks had of that being an elitist high school."

"It was a sound decision," he added.

During the high school's first year, only ninth- and 10th-graders will attend. Classes will be added until the school reaches its capacity of 1,350 students in the 2005-06 school year.

The new high school is the county's first in a quarter-century. With its state-of-the-art facilities, New Town High has been the focus of attention among parents not only in rapidly growing New Town, but also in Owings Mills and Randallstown.

Those parents hoped that if they couldn't send their children to New Town High, the school would at least draw students from Milford Mill Academy, Owings Mills and Randallstown high schools, each of which is more than 200 students over capacity this school year.

News that Hairston was considering making New Town High a magnet school added new fuel to the longstanding grievance that school and county officials slight residents of the northwest, where many African-Americans from Baltimore have moved. But school officials emphasized the magnet idea was just one option.

Barry Schleifer, executive director of the Liberty/Randalls- town Coalition, an umbrella organization for community groups, praised the superintendent's final decision, and expressed hope that the system would modernize other area schools.

"The resources should go into other schools also to upgrade and modernize them," Schleifer said.

With the content of New Town High's academic program behind them, school officials are now turning to the delicate task of establishing enrollment boundaries.

Officials want to avoid the crowding that has afflicted New Town Elementary School, which opened 200 pupils over capacity in September 2001 after parents from surrounding neighborhoods successfully lobbied to get their children in. Early this school year, Hairston barred New Town Elementary from taking any more new pupils.

To avoid such crowding, H. Scott Gehring, the official who oversees schools in the northwest area, said a boundary committee of parents, community activists and school staff will look at construction planned in the area and the number of private-school students living nearby to get a better idea of the potential size of the student body.