Committee Approves Crofton School Redistricting Plan

A school redistricting committee in Crofton has voted unanimously in favor of a plan to shift some students out of the overcrowded Nantucket Elementary. 

The 16-member group endorsed a proposal to send 113 students from Nantucket to Crofton Meadows Elementary for the 2014 school year. The plan would also move 59 students from Nantucket to Crofton Elementary in 2015.

The group also voted unanimously against an alternative proposal that would have moved more students into Crofton Meadows. 

The proposal, approved on Tuesday night, will now be presented to Superintendent Kevin Maxwell, who can accept the plan as is, amend it, or reject it. He will submit a redistricting plan to the Board of Education on Dec. 5. The board has until April to make a final vote. 

The key details of the plan approved by the redistricting committee are as follows: 

• Chelmsford Drive Area of Walden and Johns Hopkins Drive —113 students from Nantucket to Crofton Meadows. (Aug. 2014)
• Walden Drive area of Walden—59 students from Nantucket to Crofton Elementary. (Aug. 2015)
• Wilson's Grove (formerly Enclave at Riedel Pond—33 students from Crofton Meadows to Nantucket.

Under the plan, Nantucket would have a projected 708 students in 2017, down from 819 in 2012. It would still be at 104 percent capacity. 

Crofton Meadows would have 527 students (86 percent capacity) and Crofton Elementary would have 625 students (95 percent capacity.)

Both Crofton Meadows and Crofton Elementary School will be undergoing renovations to add capacity in the next year.

Committee chairwoman Maggie Schubert said additional infrastructure improvements at Crofton Elementary will make it easier for the school to operate closer to full capacity than Crofton Meadows. 

A school system official said he did not have any objection to the plan, though he acknowledged that the schools would not have much capacity left. 

"I think it's pretty much the best they could do," said Chuck Yocum, a specialist in student demographic planning for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. "The optimal number is to be right around 90 percent, so we have 10 percent wiggle room. But I don't think that could have been really done here."

The redistricting committee also voted to include two ancillary recommendations. The first requests funds for a new high school in Crofton, while a second requests money for infrastructure upgrades at Crofton Meadows. 

The committee decided against determining new boundaries for a proposed Evergreen Elementary School to the south of the Waugh Chapel Towne Centre, citing a lack of information. 

The board of education will take up the redistricting on Dec. 5 at 10 a.m.

Correction: A subhed in a previous version of this story incorrectly stated some students would be redistricted to Crofton Woods Elementary. Students will only be redistricting to Crofton Meadows Elementary or Crofton Elementary. Patch regrets the error.