Crofton Elementary's lunch is a series of six tightly choreographed shifts that takes up nearly three hours, twice as long as at most elementary schools.
Classroom space in the school is so limited that a special education class meets in what used to be a guidance counselor's office. Over capacity by 200 students, the school houses the overflow in 11 portables that hem the school building in from the sides and back.
"It can be very frustrating," Principal Donna O'Shea said.
A new redistricting plan approved by the school board last week seeks to solve Crofton's woes by moving 210 of the elementary school's students from the Walden community to the new Gambrills-area elementary school, which will open on Nantucket Drive this fall with a capacity of 713 students.
The boundaries needed to accommodate the new school will also affect 800 more students in five West County schools.
The new school is being built to relieve crowding at Crofton and ease the load at Four Seasons and Piney Orchard elementaries. School Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell and his staff said his plan best helps the district brace for an influx of military families to the region during the next four years. The number of students is expected to increase in Crofton and along the Waugh Chapel Road corridor as the national military base realigment process brings hundreds of families to the area.
"We have eight portables at Piney Orchard, 11 at Crofton Elementary, six at Four Seasons. Those schools begged for analysis, begged for a solution, for something to be done, and we really felt the superintendent's plan was the best option," said Alex Szachnowicz, the district chief facilities officer.
After months of listening to acrimonious testimony over the repercussions of the redrawn boundaries on nearby communities and schools, the board chose Maxwell's plan over an alternative proposal submitted by a group of parents from Piney Orchard Elementary School.
The parents have complained for months that the redistricting process was unfair and that the turmoil of redistricting has disproportionately fallen on their shoulders.
Those complaints aside, the board's decision Wednesday night was unanimous, with school board member Victor E. Bernson absent. Still, the vote came with some hesitation.
