Having just approved a budget headed by Bel Air High School renovations for the fiscal year starting in less than a week, the Harford Board of Education on Monday night turned to the next year?s spending priorities.
Board members are facing overcrowded elementary schools, a flood of more students from the military?s Base Realignment and Closure Act, and the possibility of redistricting twice in a year.
Prospect Mill Elementary is the most overcrowded school in the county at nearly 150 percent, schools spokesman Don Morrison said in an interview.
An elementary school on Vale Road is slated to be completed in the summer of 2010, easing Prospect Mill?s seams, but after another elementary school is built the following year, the county?s elementary schools will still be at 105 percent capacity, board members said.
And that?s not factoring in BRAC.
“It?s not like we?re building this school for BRAC,” schools Superintendent Jacqueline Haas said. “This is for the kids who are already here.”
Citing a news release from U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Haas said more residents and students from BRAC are coming this year ? not in two or three.
It has not been determined yet where the second elementary school will be placed.
“Where that second school is placed is either going to make that redistricting process easy or very difficult,” said Kathleen Sanner, supervisor of planning and construction.
Factors beyond the board?s control, such as the economy and where houses are built, will determine where families and students live, and the board cannot know how many students are always moving in and out, Haas said.
“This almost seems ludicrous to say ? but very often people say to us, ?What are you doing about where the people from BRAC are going to live?? ” she said.
Tom Fidler will take over as board president July 9 and wants to allow schools built outside designated areas to have access to utilities, so well water and septic tanks will not be necessary.
Acting Chief of Administration Joseph Licata said that move could cut the land needed for a school in half.
