New High School

Two elementary schools will be shut down, more than 600 students will shift into new schools and additions will be built onto two high schools if the Anne Arundel County School Board goes along with Superintendent Carol S. Parham's proposal for dealing with the next 20 years of overcrowding.The problem will take $27 million to fix under her plan, derived from an independent consultant's examination of the schools. The board is scheduled to discuss overcrowding and what to do about it during a 6 p.m. meeting June 14.The board will first hold a public hearing on Parham's plan at 7 p.m. June 8 in the board room at school headquarters on Riva Road.

THE NEED for a new high school for Westminster is eminently justified by the enrollment figures. Pupil population in the county has soared in the 1990s -- adding the equivalent of a new high school's worth of students every four or five years. The trend isn't expected to peak until 2005.Westminster High is among the largest high schools in the metropolitan region, with more than 2,500 students. In four years, enrollment will top 3,000 -- as large as the towns of Manchester and Sykesville.

For Westminster parents, it's a bad case of deja vu.Last month, the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended to the county commissioners that the opening of the new Westminster high school be delayed by two years.Westminster folks say the decision brings to mind the showdown in spring 1997, when the Westminster and South Carroll communities clashed over which should get a new high school first.School officials had long planned to open the new school in Westminster in 2001, but the South Carroll group argued that crowding in their area was more acute, and they would not settle for additions on the two existing high schools -- South Carroll and Liberty.

After years of planning and negotiating, Carroll County school board members thought they had found an appropriate site for the new Westminster high school, a $30 million project that has been on the drawing board since 1992.The harsh reality: They may have to search again.The county commissioners are considering selling a portion of the parcel bought in 1994 for the high school and for Cranberry Station Elementary, which is expected to open in August. Taxpayers spent $2.2 million to buy the 114.5-acre site on Cranberry Road from Westminster Nurseries Inc."

For Westminster parents, it's a bad case of deja vu.Last month, the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended to the county commissioners that the opening of the new Westminster high school be delayed by two years.Westminster folks say the decision brings to mind the showdown in spring 1997, when the Westminster and South Carroll communities clashed over which should get a new high school first.School officials had long planned to open the new school in Westminster in 2001, but the South Carroll group argued that crowding in their area was more acute, and they would not settle for additions on the two existing high schools -- South Carroll and Liberty.

Politicians, school board members, consultants and parents have spent a quarter-century studying the need for or calling for a new high school in the western part of Anne Arundel County.It is no closer to getting built than it was in 1975 when crowded classrooms at Arundel High School merited a layout in "Panorama," the school's yearbook.The hang-up is that although the high school serving west county is near capacity, there are so many empty seats at other county high schools, including South River and Annapolis high schools, that spending $45 million for a new building looks wasteful.

THE FINAL capital budget of Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker doesn't include a new high school. The fiscally conservative Mr. Ecker believes the county can save $60 million in this way in construction and financing costs.But another cost that might be greater: The inadequate education that could result from jury-rigging the system to meet student projections.Today's enrollment of 40,000 students is estimated to grow by 8,000 within 11 years. Current construction of elementary and middle schools are precursors that more high-school classrooms will be needed down the road.

Howard County Schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey has proposed a $35.48 million capital budget for next year that includes construction of an alternative school for troubled students and the planning of a new high school in Fulton to open by fall of 2002.The building plan, released yesterday and presented to the school board, also proposes constructing an Ellicott City middle school by 2004 and many additions, replacements or renovations to county schools over the next decade.Officials predict that the school system will have 6,732 new students in the next 10 years, a 17 percent increase.

Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker yesterday announced he would set aside an additional $9 million for construction of new schools and upgrades for existing schools -- including $2.3 million he had cut out of a budget requested by school officials.The funds will include $6.6 million to fill a funding gap created when state construction money announced earlier this month was less than requested.Ecker said school officials can allocate the extra funds as they see fit -- but specified that the money cannot be used to plan a new high school.

IT'S GOOD to see a new high school for eastern Howard County move closer to reality with Superintendent Michael E. Hickey's proposed capital budget for next year. There's no danger that the school project could be derailed by outgoing County Executive Charles I. Ecker. His final term will end before the budget is voted on next spring.Mr. Ecker removed money to plan a high school from the current capital budget. He suggested a radical redesign of the system, creating junior highs to offset the need for a new high school.

Data do justify new high school The Sun's article "The next big thing: smaller schools" (June 22) notes that five Baltimore County high schools - including Towson, Hereford, Loch Raven, Perry Hall and Patapsco high schools - have an enrollment about 10 percent above the schools' state-rated capacity. The county executive's office contends that that is not enough to warrant building a new school. However, the Loch Raven High School Web site says the current enrollment is 1,201, 226 students (or more than 23 percent)

There's a lot of "disappointment," some of it "extreme," in the Baltimore County executive's office this week. County exec Jim Smith has allowed that he's also "confused" and finds the situation "frustrating." It's very discreet, even decorous language in the aftermath of a pitched battle that Smith lost - and one that could come back to haunt him in the future when the term-limited county executive makes what everyone expects will be a run for another office. But then, this has been an odd fight all along.

Data don't justify a new high school Contrary to what David Marks and Laurie Taylor-Mitchell write in their column "County needs fresh thinking on schools" (Commentary, June 5), the Baltimore County Board of Education has never included a request for a northeast-area high school in its capital program. There is a simple reason why the board has not asked for a new high school in the northeast area. The state-rated capacity for the high schools in the northeast area is 8,727 students.

Baltimore County has some of the best schools in Maryland. Newsweek recently recognized 10 county high schools as among the top 5 percent in the United States. Unfortunately, there are challenges on the horizon that undermine the strength of our schools and the vitality of our communities. School overcrowding is the most serious of these challenges. The debate over whether to build an addition at Loch Raven High School is the culmination of nearly a decade of frustration with the way Baltimore County plans and builds its schools.

Some Baltimore County legislators and Towson residents are urging state officials tomorrow to reject a nearly $4 million proposal to help expand Loch Raven High School, calling it a "haphazard project" and saying the area instead needs a new high school. School and county officials want the money to build a 400-seat addition at the school on Cowpens Avenue to help ease crowding in the county's central and northeast area, which includes Loch Raven, Towson and Perry Hall high schools. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $18 million.

There was a time when kids could lounge at the pool until Labor Day, when going back to school coincided with the first chills of autumn air. But most of the hundreds of thousands of students returning to classes this week don't remember that far back. They know standardized tests and August beginnings, as those dreaded March assessments drive schools to squeeze in more teaching earlier. In Maryland, the only children left at the beach are those from Worcester County, where traditions die hard and the first school bells won't ring until Sept.

Name sought for new high school The Carroll County Board of Education is inviting residents to help name the new high school being built in the Manchester area. Suggestions should be submitted to the superintendent at 125 N. Court St., Westminster 21157. Suggestion are due 4 p.m. July 9. The superintendent will submit a final recommendation to the board for approval. Names should give proper recognition to the school and community of which it will be a part. For regulations (Policy FF)

N. Carroll deserves a new high school My wife and I have three children under age 8. So this new high school issue in the North Carroll community is critical to the future of our children. We live in a community where other families have children of similar ages and are devastated over the potential of not having a new high school built. Our goal is to have the local senators and the County Commissioners intervene and conduct hearings to decide the matter. This issue deserves the highest level of attention and the rationale for this hearing is clearly outlined.

A large and angry crowd of parents and officials from Hampstead and Manchester pushed last night for building a new high school after learning that funding for the $70 million project in northeastern Carroll County had been slashed from the county's proposed six-year capital spending plan. Residents have been pressuring Board of Education members for a new school to relieve overcrowding at North Carroll High School, but they learned yesterday that Ted Zaleski, the county budget director, recommended dropping the project.

Assistive technology session is tomorrow Parents of students with special learning needs are invited to attend a workshop on "Introduction to Assistive Technology" from 6:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at Winters Mill High School, Computer Lab D, 560 Gorsuch Road, Westminster. The purpose of the workshop is to familiarize parents, professionals, and community partners with assistive technology software and to raise awareness of how it can enhance student learning. Registration is requested at 410-751-3955.