Review Coming of Overcrowding in Northeast Baltimore County Schools

A review of school overcrowding in northeast Baltimore County has been promised by Superintendent S. Dallas Dance, and several local leaders in Perry Hall hope it will bring a new school to the area.

County Councilman David Marks said last week that Dance committed to a review of overcrowding in the region, similar to the reviews of central and southwest Baltimore County that are concluding.

Those reviews led Dance to recommend seven new projects in the Baltimore County Public Schools budget for FY 2015. Four new projects add nearly 1,000 seats in the southwest area of the county, and another three projects add nearly 800 seats, to central Baltimore County. His recommendation also calls for a project to accommodate a new school in central Baltimore County.

"We urge residents of Perry Hall to remain aware and attend the community meetings that will begin this spring on the enrollment study," Marks said.

Councilman Marks and Dennis Robinson, president of the Perry Hall Improvement Association, hope a similar review could balance enrollment at schools in the northeast through redistricting and possibly bring a new school to the area.

"I suspect the public-input process will focus on redistricting and equalizing enrollment as much as possible among the elementary schools in the area," Robinson told Patch.

"Many of these schools, such as Harford Hills Elementary, are in older communities where there is little growth," Robinson said. "In places like Carney and the developed parts of Perry Hall, demographic changes are occurring as younger families replace older homeowners."

He said, ideally, the county would approve a new high school in White Marsh, to reduce overcrowding at Perry Hall High School. 

"A parcel somewhere along the Route 43 corridor, where there is likely to be considerable growth in the near future, might be a possibility," Robinson said. "However, I am not going to be too picky if we can get a new school."

Councilman Marks, who pushed for the downzoning of 260 acres in the Perry Hall area, also played a hand in reducing the number of building permits approved in Perry Hall. Since Marks took office in late 2010, the number of approved permits has reduced from 163 annually to just 20 in the past three years.

"I was criticized by a few landowners for limiting their right to sell property for development, but downzoning was the right thing to do," Councilman Marks commented. "We blocked future construction that would have only worsened school overcrowding."