Stoneleigh Parents Leaning Toward Supporting Carver Move

Most Stoneleigh Elementary parents appeared to support a proposal presented to them Tuesday night to move their children to a soon-vacant Towson high school during a 15-month renovation to alleviate overcrowding.

The school will give parents until Oct. 12 to cast their vote on the proposal to relocate the school's nearly 699 students to , which parents can tour on Monday. Parents could also choose a second option, which appears to have little support, to keep the students at the elementary school as construction crews work around them for more than two years

"I think it'll be great," said Michelle Gutberlet of Stoneleigh, who has one child in second grade at Stoneleigh and another entering first grade next year.

At a meeting Tuesday in Stoneleigh's gymnasium, school system officials talked about the logistics of the upcoming renovation and expansion of the elementary school.

John DiMenna of Rubeling and Associates presented the floor plan for the renovated school, which included five new kindergarten classrooms, nine new regular classrooms, a relocated and larger library, an ESOL classroom and a rearranged lobby. The expansion will be built on the school's west side, on top of what is currenty a hard court play area. Those will be relocated to the north side.

Parents were formally presented Tuesday with two options for coping with the construction, which, either way, could begin as soon as June 2012.

If students remained at Stoneleigh, the work could take up to 27 months as construction crews are forced to work around school schedules. Several trailers would have to be moved, and playground and parking space would be lost to staging areas. Work would be done in four phases, with much of it occuring over three summers. Students and faculty would have to deal with the noise and inconvenience of construction for two full school years.

The relocation option, , would involve sending students to what's now the . A new Carver building is nearing completion and the old one is still in usable condition.

Moving to Carver would allow work to proceed on a faster, 15-months timeline without disturbing students or shuffling classrooms. It would also save the school system about $2 million.

The obvious downside is that students would need to be bused to Carver. The county would use existing bus routes and add bus stops throughout Stoneleigh Elementary's neighborhoods, but not at the school. The school property itself would be off-limits throughout construction.

The move is "not so much a challenge but a change," said Stoneleigh principal Christine Warner.

"I see it as a 180-day field trip for the whole school," she said. "And we like field trips."

School system officials have already mapped out a floor plan to use should parents go with the Carver option, and on Oct. 10 Warner will lead a tour of Carver to show how Stoneleigh would use the space. All equipment, from computers to swings, would be shipped to Carver for the year.

Some parents expressed safety concerns about being wedged between a high school and Warner said that the school will have a full safety plan, and noted that there have been no incidents at Carver.

Other parents, asking about plans to stay at Stoneleigh, were worried about allergies and dust from construction. Officials said the construction areas would be sealed off.

However, Warner said, in the interests of transparency, parents will be allowed to choose which plan the school system goes with.

"We want you to feel good about which option is ... good for your child and good for your family," she said.

Each Stoneleigh family will be able to vote on the best option in a survey form due Oct. 12. But parents Patch talked to were perfectly happy with the idea of sending their children to Carver for a year.

"It can be billed as a great experience. I'm thrilled there will be enough room there," Gutberlet said.

Pete Steger of Wiltondale has one daughter in fourth grade.

"She's OK with the move," he said, adding that it will be good to have larger rooms for art and music while at Carver. "The fifth graders haven't had decent special rooms for years."

County Councilman , who with other area legislators supporting the Stoneleigh project, said there was a "clear consensus" among the families.

"I think this meeting went a lot smoother than people thought it would," he said.

, a member of said she was "hopeful that parents will see the wisdom of this plan."

"I think our children will be better served by being out of a construction zone for two years," she said.