Mays Chapel residents fight plan for a new school

For the second time in about five years, Mays Chapel residents are fighting the Baltimore County school system's plans to build a school in their neighborhood on land that was purchased years ago for that purpose.

Residents who spoke at a school board meeting on Tuesday night said a retirement community has grown up around the school system's land since it was purchased years ago and it is now used as recreation and parkland by many of the residents in surrounding retirement communities. It is no longer appropriate for a school, they said. Stanley Miller goes there early every morning to walk. "The park is a beautiful place with thousands of beautiful trees," Miller said. Miller said he supports public education and hopes that another location can be found.

CalebR. Kelly III said it would be disruptive to the life style of the community to have a school in the middle of it. The small, country roads surrounding the location cannot handle the addition traffic, he said, particularly when it backs up from I-83.

The Baltimore County school system is planning to build a 700-seat school west of 83 on Padonia Road to relieve crowding at schools along the York Road corridor schools. Even if the school is built, enrollment projections show the need for another 400 seats in the county by 2018. The school board's contracts and building committee plans to hold a meeting on March 6 to discuss its plans to address overcrowding and will go into the Mays Chapel site proposal in detail at that time.