This meeting, unlike the one in January, which had hundreds of attendees with many speaking about the boundary options, this one had very few, and only four Board of Education members available.

Loni Ingraham of the Towson Times covered the hearing, and described it as very tame in comparison to other sessions.

The scenario that has been recommended by the panel for the vote is the West Towson Scenerio G, as depicted in the 4th page of this document provided by Towson Families United.

It is a relief to have these meetings behind us and will be nice to be able to move forward, knowing where children will be attending school in the fall. Most West Towson homeowners were in the same position as my family, where in any of the scenerios, our district would be changed to the West Towson Elementary School, so we were not as affected as others.

I can understand the irritation and passion over where someone send their child to school, but redistricting can ALWAYS happen, and at least the Baltimore County Board of Education gave Towson residents the opportunity to have their voices heard.

This redistricting is part of why Maryland Realtors® are not allowed to talk about the quality of schools when helping someone with the purchase or sale of a home. Most also recommend calling your local school board or looking online (like www.bcps.org for Baltimore County Public Schools) to find a school district. You cannot safely choose a home solely because of a school district because you never know when the attendance boundaries might be changed.

The Towson Families United group, which is “A coalition of parents and residents seeking a long-term solution to Towson’s overcrowded schools”, reports on their site that four different options were presented, and then the attendees were split into smaller groups to discuss what factor was most important to them in making a boundary change, and each individual was asked to choose which of the four they would prefer to see. The data collected will be sent to an independent research facility for analyzing and the results sent to the committee for further review.

The boundary committee making these recommendations to the Baltimore County School Board is run by Central Area Assistant Superintendent Barbara Walker, and is comprised of parents, community representatives (for example, there is one from the Ruxton Riderwood Lake Roland Improvement Association and one from the Rodgers Forge Community Association) , teachers, and Administrators.

A formal recommendation will be given to the Baltimore County School Board by school officials on February 9, 2010 at its regular Board Meeting. After that point, another meeting will be held for public commentary on February 24, 2010 at Loch Raven High School.

The final decision will be announced March 9, 2010 at 7:00 pm.

It is wonderful that Towson residents are given this opportunity to voice their opinions and be such a large part of this large decision making process. It makes it more and more prevalent why living in Towson is such a great thing!

The Baltimore County School Board would like input on the boundary drawing possibilities from the Towson neighborhoods affected by the possible change in redistricting.

The open meeting being held January 6 will be at Loch Raven High School, which is located at 1212 Cowpens Avenue in Towson, MD 21286 at 7 pm.

The West Towson Elementary School is scheduled to open in August 2010 and is located on Charles Street next to the Ridge Ruxton School. The school is being built primarily to help reduce the overcrowding at Riderwood Elementary School and Rodgers Forge Elementary School in Towson.