December 06, 1995|By Andrea F. Siegel | Andrea F. Siegel,SUN STAFF
School Superintendent Carol S. Parham wants to let citizens' groups suggest the best way to redraw the boundaries for two school feeder systems.
Usually, the superintendent makes boundary recommendations to the school board at the first board meeting in December.
Instead, Dr. Parham will ask the board at today's meeting to consider creating two advisory panels.
Thomas W. Rhoades, director of program planning, said the superintendent took the approach because the administration hopes to draw community members into the redistricting process.
One group would recommend school boundaries for the Annapolis High School feeder system. The other group would tackle the question of which students to move from crowded George Fox Middle School -- the only school feeding Northeast High -- to Chesapeake Middle School in the Chesapeake High feeder system.
The group drafting a plan for Annapolis redistricting might find itself trying to balance a neighborhood's request against the cost to taxpayers.
Renovating and reopening Adams Park Elementary -- as sought by citizens -- as part of the Annapolis High feeder system would cost the county $5.9 million. The state, which usually pays toward school construction, will not give the county money toward Adams Park because there is adequate room for students from the area.
And unless it draws students from outside the immediate, predominantly black area, Adams Park might be a segregated school.
But community leaders believe renovating and opening Adams Park will help revitalize the Clay Street corridor, a neighborhood near the state capital.
The County Council has asked to see proposed boundaries before it spends any money. If approved, Adams Park would reopen in 1998 or 1999.
A proposal to relieve crowding at George Fox Middle School by shifting Riviera Beach or Sunset elementary school students to Chesapeake Middle School was opposed by parents of all the schools.
The Pasadena peninsula is likely to see more than 1,000 new homes in the next few years.
"I am perplexed by what we are doing in the Pasadena corridor in terms of what we need for space," said board member Thomas Twombly, who represents the Pasadena area. "I know that Riviera Beach did not like the idea of moving to Chesapeake Middle. So propose something else."
