By Taylor Haire
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
More than 100 parents, teachers and children packed Catonsville High School Wednesday night to voice their opposition or support for a school redistricting plan that would require more than 300 Kindergarten to fifth-grade students to move to new elementary schools over the next two years.
The plan, which is under consideration by the Baltimore County Board of Education, calls for moving students from the southwestern part of Hillcrest to a newly expanded Westchester Elementary School.
In addition, students from the east side of Hillcrest and the north side of Halethrope would move into the new Catonsville Elementary School, which is scheduled to open in August. Relay Elementary School would also take students from Arbutus and Halethrope.
During the school board’s public hearing on Wednesday, some parents said they were upset because they will have to move their children after they had invested all of their time and energy into their current schools.
The change has the potential of dividing neighbors who have created bonds and relationships with each other and their children, other parents said. They argued that the board did not take proper steps to make the proposal known to the effected residents.
“I feel like I have invested in the current school,” said Kim Welch, who is the mother of a Hillcrest student.
Most of the people who spoke at the public hearing were opposed to the proposal, which is known as plan 3.2b. School officials chose this proposal from four options because, they said, it would affect the fewest number of students.
School officials have also said the change is needed to alleviate overcrowding at some facilities and to help diversify the student populations at each school.
Parents were not buying the arguments, though. Some said that while proposal 3.2b may affect the fewest number of students overall in the area, the children who are affected will be negatively impacted.
“It’s not only not fair, but it’s not right,” said Gretchen Scuey, a mother of a student at Hillcrest Elementary School who will be affected if 3.2b is picked.
Not all parents disagreed with the proposal. Some parents who spoke said option 3.2b made the most sense and affected the fewest people without overcrowding the schools.
Some adults believed that it was necessarily to not only look at the children who would individually be affected, but to also look at the community as a whole and see what is best overall.
“No plan was going to be perfect,” said Jim Kitchell, a resident in the community who was concerned for his neighbors and their children. “Hillcrest is wonderful and everyone wants to stay, but some change may be necessary.”
If approved, the plan will take about a year to complete. Students who live in the new zoned areas of Catonsville, Halethorpe, and Westchester would attend the new Catonsville Elementary school in August, while students who live in the Relay and Arbutus areas would attend new elementary schools in August 2017.
The Board of Education is scheduled to vote for one of the redistricting proposals on March 1.