Pick Your Own School Site

Despite overwhelming community opposition, the Baltimore County Board of Education voted on Tuesday to approve plans for an elementary school in Mays Chapel, in a rush for land that The Baltimore Sun compared to the situation in Elkridge.

"The need for land for schools has become an issue around the region," reported the Sun, which cited Elkridge as an example.

According to a March 19 report from the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, 90 percent of the land on the Route 1 corridor is built out, with "much of the remaining 10 percent already committed to future residential or commercial development."

Overcrowding in Elkridge is most pronounced at , which has nearly 900 students, and , with its seven portable classrooms. 

In recent years, Elkridge residents grew so concerned about overcrowding and the need to find land for new schools that the Greater Elkridge Community Association created a committee to work on solutions. There is also an Elkridge Schools Facebook group dedicated to the cause.

As it stands, the Howard County Board of Education in the path of what servicing 900 trucks per day. Howard County will also commence construction this month for  on Ducketts Lane  the community finds satisfactory. 

At a in December, Howard County school board members threw up their hands and asked residents where they would put a school.

Tell us what you think in the comments or on the map. Click "add" in the top right corner of the map to add a marker where you'd put a school.