After Elkridge Outcry, Board of Education Deflects Questions About School Search

In response to Elkridge residents’ outrage, a citizen representative will advise the Howard County Board of Education Thursday on ways to bring the community into the process of selecting sites for new schools.

In fall 2010, the school board approached the Community Advisory Council (CAC) for advice on the topic in the wake of public upset. 

The controversy began last August when residents protested against a proposal to build the new northeastern elementary school in a development called Oxford Square that was in the planning phases on Coca Cola Drive in Hanover. 

Residents cited the proposed site’s proximity to the railroad, inappropriate and more recently, the possibility of a being built nearby as reasons they were opposed. Residents requested additional sites be brought before the public but that has gone . 

The board did, however, tap the CAC—its source for community input—to do homework on the issue of site selection.

“After the controversy with the Coca Cola Drive site, a couple of the board members felt it would be worthwhile to investigate having more community participation in the site selection process,” said Chris Wertman, chair of the CAC subcommittee on the issue.

“The board wanted to get a sense of whether they should have more community participation, what other school systems do and what the view of our community is,” said Wertman.

At an April 28 school board meeting, CAC President Ted Mallo provided a preview of a report that will be presented at the May meeting.

“There was consensus within the CAC that potential structures do exist to enable additional community involvement earlier in the acquisition process,” he said.

Wertman will present the CAC’s research and findings about school site selection at the Board of Education meeting on Thursday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m.

Meantime, construction appears to be taking place at Oxford Square, as evidenced in photographs taken at the site, although the developer and the county’s zoning department have declined to comment on the project.

"New northeastern elementary school schematic design report” has been added to the Board of Education’s latest quarterly agenda—the 11th revision of the document—and will be discussed at the June 9 meeting.