Superintendent Commits to Community Meetings to Discuss Overcrowding

Baltimore County schools Superintendent S. Dallas Dance will be conducting a series of community input meetings across the county to brainstorm ideas to alleviate and prevent overcrowding, he announced Thursday at the county budget hearing in Towson.

"We want to engage the community at the beginning of the process," school system spokesman Mychael Dickerson said. "Community members know their communities better than anyone."

Earlier this week, Perry Hall community leaders sent letters to Dance's office requesting the hearings specifically in the northeastern area of the county.

"Similar discussions have started for the southwestern and central regions of Baltimore County," Fifth District Councilman David Marks said. "I made the case that we need to take steps now to reduce the overcrowding that threatens the quality of schools from Harford Hills to Perry Hall."

The input meetings will begin sometime in the next academic year.

BCPS officials will gather input from the meetings and then will "do their homework," Dickerson said. It is possible that the meetings will yield options for fixing overcrowding in public schools.

Marks said he wants to bring the idea of a new high school, to be constructed in the northeastern part of the county, back to the table. Talks about building a new high school stalled as the effects of the recession set in.

Marks said a magnet school could help ease the burden of an overcrowded Perry Hall High School.

"I would particularly like to thank the Perry Hall Improvement Association and its President, Dennis Robinson, for also pushing for this process," Marks said. "I will continue to keep the community informed as this process unfolds."

Stay with Patch as we continue to cover this story.

Related Content:

• Take Steps Now to Reduce Northeast Overcrowding
• Marks Outlines Overcrowding Concerns in Letter to Superintendent
• Improvement Association President Offers Solutions to Prevent Overcrowding