Howard County residents protest school boundary changes

Howard County heard from over 300 community members at public hearings held at the school board headquarters in Ellicott City on Oct. 8, 9, 14, and 15.  The subject of these meetings has been Superintendent Michael Martirano’s proposal for a significant redistricting that would reassign approximately 7,396 students including 3,194 elementary, 1,351 middle and 2,851 high school students. Of the over 150 people who addressed the board, none of the attendees agreed with the plan to send students to new schools.

Superintendent Michael Martirano has stood by his belief as announced through HCPSS News on Aug. 22. “Equity has been the basis for all of our decisions throughout our boundary review process, as we strive to ensure that all students may have full access and opportunity to receive the best educational services and supports,” Martirano had said in the announcement. 

He noted that the Board of Education (BOE) held four community input sessions in July, which were intended to provide a satisfactory opportunity for residents to discuss their feelings before Board Members would move forward to implement his proposal. 

Parents and community members came to these sessions, sporting shirts with the slogan, “Keep Communities Together,” carrying petitions signed by those who could not attend and coming prepared with data to demonstrate their belief that this proposal was not the answer. 

Several doctors and pediatricians from the community, including pediatric neurologist Dr. Alpa Vashist, allergist Hemant Sharma, pediatrician Dr. Naseem Dawood and child psychologist Sheridan Phillips gave verbal testimonies at the Oct. 8 BOE meeting, asserting concerns that loss of sleep, loss of school cohesion, depression and medical emergencies would be the unintended result of the negligent disregard for students in the Superintendent’s plan. Dr. Sunil Patel spoke of his own son and daughter who, if this plan is implemented, will be forced to endure bus rides of more than 1.25 hours and will no longer be able to participate in after school activities. 

Dr. Frank Nezu was most direct. In his testimony at the BOE meeting, he called the plan cowardice and said, “In sixteen years of practice, not one of my poor and chronically ill patients were cured by sitting next to an affluent healthy patient in the waiting room. I challenge all of you to try and help these children and not just cover up failure with the test scores of high performing students.”

Some parents spoke individually of personal concerns; others united in groups representing their neighborhood to plead that the board take the community’s voice and their children’s well-being into account before the vote.  

Howard County parent Luke Holmenek spoke of the lack of supervision on school buses and the danger of bullying, sexual harassment, off color jokes, vaping and other mischief that would happen if students are left to their own devices on the bus for 2.5 hours daily. He calculated, for the board, that a one hour bus ride to school plus another one hour ride home would equate to 3,240 hours or 463 school days lost.  

Parent Christopher Monte expressed disappointment that parents would be less able to participate in school activities with this plan. Another parent, Fred Allen, said that friendships and lifelong bonds will be torn apart if this plan proceeds as it is. A third parent, Chuck Cullin, attested that 70 percent of the data in the Superintendent’s plan was wrong and shared his own data.  

Multiple other parents, including Meghan Egan, Matthew Gallagher and Jennifer Gallagher all pointed out that, under this plan, 63 students now attending West Friendship Elementary School would be attending their third school in four years. Egan recalled the anxiety, tears, upset stomachs, and feelings of loneliness that her children felt for months after the last move that HCPSS required of them. Lynn Joel, from the same community, pointed out that the board’s passing of this plan would disregard the BOE’s 2019 Parent Survey which indicated that 43 percent of parents value proximity to school and that the plan also violates the HCPSS stated commitment to prioritize stabilization and community cohesiveness.

Frank Laumann, a parent of two high school students at River Hill High School, was not at the meeting but said in an interview with The MoCo Student, “We have an overcrowding problem at certain schools that needs to be addressed, but swapping kids around to create equitable numbers doesn’t truly solve any problems and only pads the Superintendent’s resume.”

Wilde Lake senior Megan Matthews told The Moco Student that she was glad to be graduating and to not have to worry about this. “I think it will be hard for a lot of people if this happens next year⁠—like having to make new friends and stuff. I think they are trying to do the right thing, though,” Matthews said. 

There will be seven total work sessions, and the BOE will vote on this matter on Nov. 21.

Article by J.P. King of Richard Montgomery High School

Graphic by Helena Yang of Richard Montgomery High School