Oxford Square Designated as New Middle School Site

The Board of Education voted on Thursday evening to designate Oxford Square on Coca Cola Drive as the new middle school site for the northeast.

Based on enrollment projections, which showed that middle schools in the northeast would exceed 110 percent capacity by 2014, school planners said the board asked them recently to accelerate their search for the middle school. Initially, planners were looking to open the new middle school by 2015.

To meet the accelerated timeline and open a school by fall 2014, staff said it would need to complete schematic design and other plans by March 2012.

“That’s when the site review becomes critical [for state funding], and at some point, you have no ability to get the shovel in the ground,” said Ken Roey, director of facilities for the school system, at the .

Board member Allen Dyer voted against approving the site for a middle school, and Cindy Vaillancourt abstained.

“I would move that the board schedule a public hearing of this issue,” said Dyer, noting that Jill Bateman of the Greater Elkridge Community Association (GECA) approached staff before the meeting about the lack of a public hearing on the site.

In April 2010, the school system received an offer of land on Coca Cola Drive. The 20.2-acre parcel was donated by Preston Scheffenacker, developer of , a community including housing, retail and commercial space at the intersection of Coca Cola and Park Circle Drive.

Attached to the free land was a $4 million donation toward school construction if the school were built by 2014.

At a hearing about the Oxford Square site when it was proposed for an elementary school, on Sept. 23, 2010, GECA testified that its membership was concerned about safety and lack of additional sites, according to minutes from the public hearing.

The concern heightened when , which announced in early 2011 that it was eyeing a parcel at Hanover and Race Roads—half a mile from the proposed elementary school—for a train-truck depot, called an “intermodal facility” because it's where trains and trucks interchange cargo.

After the Board of Education heard about that, it moved not to designate Oxford Square as the new elementary school site, and is instead in the process of .

“This is the site that we refused to approve for an elementary school, and I don’t see that there’s been any significant change since that decision,” said Dyer of Oxford Square. “I’m concerned that I haven’t heard anything about any other potential sites.”

“We have other properties that we’ve been looking at. I’m not at liberty to discuss them,” said Joel Gallihue, manager of school planning, in a phone interview with Patch before the school board meeting. “They would obviously cost money; they aren’t free like this particular site, and they may not allow for a 2014 opening. In fact, I can safely say they would not allow for a 2014 opening.”

School board member Frank Aquino made a motion to move forward to designate Oxford Square as the site for a middle school.

"The need for a school in 2014 really outweighs the other issues right now. I can't see holding that up any longer," said Aquino. "It’s a good site."

Board member Sandra French seconded the motion. Chair Janet Siddiqui and board members Ellen Flynn Giles and Brian Meshkin approved of the motion.

“Staff recommendation of this site for a school has remained through all of this, and we do it with the knowledge of the [intermodal facility] proposed,” Gallihue told Elkridge Patch.

“The board has given us direction that as the need has become a little more urgent, we’re going to see what we can do to get [a school] in there before 2015," he continued. "It’s our job to make these kinds of recommendations in a timely manner.”