September 24, 2019 Dear Members of the Board of Education, Thank you very much for allowing me to speak tonight. think it is very important that you hear a student's perspective on redistricting. My name is Bert Roberts IV and I live in Polygon 16, which is part of the Dickinson neighborhood in Kings Contrivance. I attend Hammond MS, and I have a younger brother in 5 grade and a sister in Kindergarten at Athotton elementary. My sister in kindergarten is up for being redistricted to Guilfbrd elementary from Atholton elementary. I am opposed to this for many reasons. My sister has been around the Atholton community her whole life. She is so comfortable going to Kindergarten because she has been around this place so many times for school activities like reading picnics, chess club, fun runs, and lunches with her brothers. It is really cool knowing that she might have the same teachers as my brother and I. It was also cool how exdted the teachers got, knowing they were going to get another Roberts kid, her Kindergarten teacher is the same teacher I had for first grade! If she has to start over at a new school next year, it will be a school she has never been around, and she will probably be really nervous. I am also asking that you please keep Polygons 13, 14, 15, which are also located in the Dickinson Community, going to Hammond Middle School instead of the currently proposed redistricting to Lake Elkhorn Middle School. All of the kids that I know from Atholton elementary school would be redistricted to another middle school, and some of them I wouldn't even see in high school. My friends that live in Macgills common would go to Atholton high school, instead of Hammond high. I want our whole community of Dickinson and Macgills to stay together at Hammond Middle and Hammond HS. My brother is in 5 grade and going to go to Hammond MS with me next year. With this redistricting plan, he would go to his new school for 6 grade knowing only about 5 people from Atholton ES. He would have to make completely new friends and it would be harder to keep contact with his old friends. I know how hard it is going to school only knowing about half the people, but can only imagine how scary it would be only knowing 5 people. One of the reasons that we love living in Columbia is for the trails. Behind our house is one of the Columbia trails. We are abte to walk and bike to Atholton elementary using these trails. Our next door neighbor occasionally walks to school and we have biked to school on bike to school day. If we go to Guilford, there would be no such possibility of walking or hiking to friends' houses, because it is separated by commercial space and large roads I hope you will consider my testimony and keep our polygon(s) 16 (1016, 1014) attending Atholton ES . Equally as important is to keep our neighborhoods of Dickinson ( Polygons 13, 14, 15) and MacGills Common (Polygons 57, 1057, 2017) attending Hammond Middle and Hammond HS. Thank you. Bert Roberts IV Blue Sea Drive Polygon 16 Hi, My name is Jordan Solomon. 1 Uve in polygon 129. I am 8 years old and go to school in third grade at PointersRun Elementaiy School. I like my school because it's a big school and there are lote of people m my grade. So, at the begimung of the year when I go into my class, there are always a couple people I know so I can go in comfortably. But there is still always a chance to make new ffiends. Because there are 6 classes of each grade, I am always going to meet new fiiends every year. I know I have one ofAe biggest grades in the school, of 150 students (that comes up a lot in the cafetesria!) and I feel that it is a nice amount of kids. Not too crowded! I like that it is close by because I don't have to take long bus ride. It is also good that it is close by becauseit isn't far for soccerpractice or play dates. But, I understand that you will decide where I go to school. And I know I have to go to the school you decide. I asked my parents to let me speak here because I wanted to give you some information Aat mighthelp you make a gooddecision. I know you encourage walk and bike to school day throughout the county. My fiiends and I like to walk lots of days. I just walked to school last Friday. If you move my school, my fiiends and I in polygon 129 will not be able to walk or bike to school, because its too far and unsafe. Ifyou changemy school, it will also changemy soccerteam becausethe leagueplaces us by school. Right now I practice at ClarkvUle Middle School, right across the street fi-om PointersRun. Almost all the kids on my team go to Pointers Run. If I go to Swansfield, I will play on a teamthat will likely practice at SwansfieldElementary. I really like math, it's my favorite subject in school. So I thought I could make this into a math problem. My soccer practice is on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:00. I used a map app on my mom's phoneto look up how long it takes me to get to PointersRun and how long it will take to get to a new soccer practice at Swansfield. I wiU tell you it takes sue minutes to drive to pres and 14 minutes to drive to swansfield. That's 12 minutes round trip to Pomters Run and 28 minutes round trip to Swansfield. That's almost a halfhour! Thatmeans I have less time for homework, dinner withmy family, for other after school activities, or to ride my bike andplay outside. I am askingthat you keep me and my neighborhoodfiiends, in polygon 129, at a school dose to my house. Thank you for listening and thank you for working so hard. JordanSolomon, Polygon 129 Good Evening Chairperson Ellis, Superintendent Martirano and the members of the Board. My Name is Alex Horn, I live in Columbia, MD, and it is an honor to say that I am a sophomore at Wilde Lake High School. Wilde Lake is an amazing school, we have over 50 clubs and honor societies, an amazing fine arts program, and the most AP classes of any high school in Howard County. Wilde Lake has an amazing group of diverse students from various different backgrounds, which studies show creates a better learning environment for every student. For those reasons, I fully support redistricting Howard County schools with desegregation, integration, and equity in mind, and I therefore fully support Dr. Martirano's plan. This Board has a once in a lifetime opportunity to continue the efforts started by leaders in the 50s to desegregate our schools. I strongly encourage this board to vote in favor for Dr. Martirano's plan because every student, no matter of race or class, has the right to a full and equitable education, and that simply isn't happening right now. We are segregating our students into race and class and giving schools with lower socioeconomic status with less resources. This county has the duty as the third most wealthy county in the nation and the best school district possibly in the world to not just support every student but to lead in the quest for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In Wilde Lake we have a new initiative called Ghana, which means no one left behind, and if I have to follow that so does the county. So in the spirit of diversity I will share a teaching and wisdom from my Muslim neighbors and siblings. God made us into different tribes so we may get to know each other. Thank you. Polygon 1268 Dear SuperintendentMartirano andElected Members ofthe BOB ofHoward County, My name is ChristopherBardini and I live in Polygon 1011. As a highschool student/member ofthe graduating class of 2022, I am appalled by the superintendent's reckless proposal for redistricting for the 2020-2021 school year. The current proposal moves an absolutely ridiculous number of students out ofmy school, Atholton, and also River Hill High School, both of which are under the 110% capacity mark while the high school that is the most overcrowded (Howard High) is not being suggested to be affected nearly as much. This is just one example ofthe inabilityof (his planto effectively addressovercrowding, another of which beingthe almost equalproposed exchange of students between Lake Elkhom andHammond Middle Schools. In fact, some ofthe proposed moves go against the recommendations of Policy 6010, which states in the Commimity Stability section that a consideration when attendance area adjustments are being proposed is the 'Trequency with which any one student is reassigned, maldng every attempt to not move a studentmore thanonce at any school level or the same studentmore fi-equentlythan once every five years." Polygons 117, 118, 120, 123, 126, 127, 296, 1, 117, 1, 120, 1, 123, and 1^296 (which currently attend Atholtam High School) were redistricted from Lime Kiln Middle Schoolto Clarksville Middle Schoolnot even two years ago in the last round ofredistrictingand with that, students in the graduatingclass of2023 (rising sophomores) living in thosepolygons would thereforebe redistrictedonce againunder the five year time frame. It is quite clear that this plan was created with a complete disregard for the students' well-beingand from an adolescent'sperspective, I haveto saythat I findit very difficult to tmst you all as the superintendentand Board of Education to be makingdecisions for us students after this.