While a recent community-commissioned report indicates a much-anticipated middle school in Owings Mills may not be as urgent a need as residents previously believed, a local lawmaker said the area is ideal for Baltimore County?s first kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.
Owings Mills is in desperate need of a new elementary ? not middle ? school, according to a study conducted by the Reisterstown-Owings Mills-Glyndon Coordinating Council that evaluated capacity at area county schools. The new Windsor Mill Middle School, south of Liberty Road, opened room for more than 100 students at Deer Park Middle and between 300 and 400 students at Old Court Middle, according to the report. Crowding at Franklin Middle in Reisterstown, which is operating at state-rated capacity, could be relieved at these schools.
But the report doesn?t consider development in the pipeline, said Jonathan Schwartz, who conducted the study for the council. And, he said, most parents in Owings Mills, which has no middle school, would prefer their children to remain at a crowded middle school than send them to distant schools.
“Middle school students have to be bussed to Pikesville or Randallstown or Reisterstown,” Schwartz said. “Why should all these kids be bussed all over the place? Put a school where the kids are.”
State Sen.-elect Bobby Zirkin, D-11th District, said needs for a new elementary school and convenient middle could be solved with a joint facility ? something he plans to advocate to county leaders. But the county is not considering kindergarten through eighth-grade schools at the time, according to Brice Freeman, a school system spokesman. A county spokeswoman said Executive Jim Smith would not consider the concept until it is requested by school officials.
But officials said Smith and other county lawmakers are committed to purchasing 54 state-owned acres at the Rosewood property in Owings Mills, enough for a joint school, Zirkin said.
The state declared the property surplus last year, then removed it from the clearinghouse list. Zirkin said the state will soon again offer the property for sale, and nearly $3 million is in place to purchase it.
“It?s unfortunate it?s taking so long just to get the land,” Zirkin said. “But these things take time, and we?re going to keep pushing very hard.”
