Carroll County residents will shoulder the cost of a new $75 million high school in northeast county ? but it might not be needed.
“Essentially what we are seeing across the county is a decreasing high school enrollment population,” said Steve Guthrie, Carroll County schools? assistant superintendent for administration.
A new school enrollment projection shows that if a new school is built in northeast county, North Carroll, Winters Mill and Westminster high schools will be 1,500 students under capacity. Enrollment projections are based on birth rates, student migration trends and development permits issued.
Southern Carroll parents raised concerns about the price tag , especially since the state has denied requests to help fund work needed at the school from cracks in the tennis courts to the overall modernization of the school.
“Building new is always wonderful. ? I think some of that money needs to be dumped into South Carroll,” said Mary Alexander, president of the South Carroll High School Parent Teacher Student Association.
The school board approved the new high school for 1,250 students about two years ago in the midst of a population boom in Carroll County.
Enrollment projections have dropped off, partly because Manchester, Hampstead and the county have slowed growth by enforcing adequate public facility regulations which controls growth around schools, Guthrie said.
The county also has experienced a lower birth rate over the past five years and a decline in elementary school populations, he said.
School board members said they will push ahead with plans for the school, which is set to open in 2009.
“At this time, I don?t think it has changed everything. Right now, it?s a blimp, but we have to give it another year. If the trend continues downward, that?s something we need to look at,” said Board Member Gary Bauer.
Northern Carroll parents said they are skeptical of the projections, and overcrowding at high schools must be addressed immediately.
Kaaren Priester, a Manchester resident with two middle and one elementary school student, said she continues to see families moving into developments around her home.
“I don?t know where folks think these kids are going to go to high school,” she said.
