«...._- . -. ' - «- . -^-. » - - - d. ', f"i' October 25, 2019 Ms. Mavis Ellis, Chairperson Howard County Board of Education 10910 Clarksville Pike Ellicott City, Maryland 21042 Re: HCPSS Attendance Area Alignment Plan Dear Ms. Ellis, Wewrite to expressthe Coalition'ssupport of Dr. Martirano'sand the School Board'sefforts to better balance school capacity and demographics so that all schools have FARMs populations closer to the County average. We recognize that this is a tough task, but believe it an important task. We support the many public comments referencing the strong body of research affirming that all students perform better when engaged in education that is delivered in a diverse environment. Coalition members are disappointed that the proposed plan will not open any new areasfor development under the newAPFO law. We do expect, however, that at some point these readjustments will result in areas within the community opening up thereby increasing opportunities to generate housing options for HCPSS low and moderate income families. We are sincerely appreciative of the Board of Education's commitment to meeting the challenges of attendancearea alignment. Asyou continueyour deliberations of the proposed plan andthe public comments it haselicited, we are confident that your final decisionswill result in better school opportunities for all children, including our County's students who are homeless, housing insecure and living in existingaffordable housing. Respectfully, J'OLC^tieluaa'En^- Jacqueline Eng, Coordinator Housing Affordability Coalition Cc: Members, Howard County Board of Education Dr. Michael Martirano, HCPSSSuperintendent The Howard County Affordable Housing Coalition Committed to achievingcommunity understanding, pollcymaking andregulatory decisions that will leadto an increasein and equitable access to HowardCounty housingaffordobility; and Creating a comniunlty-wide recognition that Howard County's economic vitality Isdependent upon access to jobs, resident mobility, quality education and housing affordobility. Kathleen V. Hanks From: claudia hollywood <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 25, 2019 12:38 PM To: Hcpss Redistricting Subject: [External] Howard County School Board Howard County School Board I live in OaklandMills andhave for over 40 years. Although I nolonger have children in the school system, ! do have grandchildren who are. I amvery concerned with what is going on with the redistricting process thus far. I have listened and read all the negativity and feel I can no longer be silent. I amnot surewhy the highschool level is being so impacted atthis time, asthere will be anotherschool openingin a couple ofyears whichwill causea reshuffling ofstudents again.The school system obviously miscalculated thenumber ofstudents in westernHoward County whenbuilding schools ifthey are so under utilized. While, in my opinion, the county continued to build rapidly on the eastside with no Aought to where these children would attend school. Sadly, It seems that no one seemed to notice thedisparity, with schools in the west becoming more white while Columbia and the east had a disproportionate number ofminority and poorer students attending schools. I have a couple of suggestions. First let all the students who were districted to Riverhill, be sent back to or to Glenelg, Marriott Ridge, or Mt Hebron. Thenuse the open seats atRiverhill housethe students to be districted to the newEastern HS until their school is open. Thatwould be anincentive to getit built, soonerthan later. It would relieve some overcrowding at Howard in the process. Since Oakland Mills is undemtilized, keep the areas attending andhave Glenmont return to OMHS. That areahas been sent to OM in the past. Giving the school some middle income families in the process. As far asTalbott Springs and Stevens Forest, the children living inVerona right nextto the school and Basket Ringshould be attending Talbott Springs,not be walking past it to getto StevensForest. Thathas always been a travesty that needs to be corrected The other Verona still should go to Stevens Forest. I am not sure why polygons are setup asthey arewith absolutely no flexibility at all. As far asHopewell and Sewells Orchard communities, oneneeds to go to Talbott Springs, andthe otherto StevensForest. Peopleneed to become investedin whatever school their children attend. Ifthat doesn't work, make StevensForest pre K -2ndgrade andTalbott Springs 3-5. Thatway all the parents will bevested in both schools. This hasworked elsewhere. Petition the county to endfee in lieu. Thishas created this inequity, in neighborhoods andtherefore schools. Manyof us bought our homes, based on where our children would go to school. Weexpected change, but not so drastically thatcertain communities andtheir schools would have to shoulderthis much disparity Mid inequity. Oakland Mills is a strong community, but evenwe cannot do it all. It is pasttime to correct this situation, without all this animosity. Thankyou Claudia Hollywood [email protected] Sent from my iPad October 25, 2019 Board of Education Howard County Public School System 10910ClarksvillePike EllicottCity, MD21042 redistricting(%hcDss.ors Dear Members of the Board: Thankyou for the opportunity to comment onthe Superintendent's Proposed Attendance AreaAdjustment Planfor SY 2020-2021 (hereinafter referred to asthe "Proposed Plan"), . r?olyg??is 178and one ofour two childrenwill bedirectly affectedby the Proposed Plan. Aslifelong Howard County residents, we value all of the resources that were expended to propose a planof this magnitude. Wesupport addressing over-capacity atschools andensuring thatall Howard County studentsreceive the means necessary to obtaina quality education. However, asdescribed more folly below, we areunable to support the Proposed Planbecause we believe it violates basicdue process rights, is inconsistent withPolicy 6010, and is not m thebest interestof most students. Accordingly,we respectfully urge you to vote "no" to the Proposed Plan. The Proposed Planhas received a lot ofattention through hundreds ofwritten andverbal testimonies,at-capacity hearings, several protests, and local and national news interest. Manyin thecounty - acrossthe entire county, not just in any one community - havespoken out in opposition ofthe Proposed Plan. And,unfortunately, somepeople havemade ignorant and uncivil comments. Thesetypes ofcomments areuneducated andshould not be tolerated. The public, theSuperintendent, themembers ofthe area adjustment committee ("AAC"), andthe members ofthe Boardshould be careful not to taintthese discussionswith conscious or unconscious biases, pre-judgements, orprejudices. Ourfocus should beon the county's children - for their overall well-being andeducation - andon their families. VIOLATIONS OF DUE PROCESS Dueprocess isthe fundamental rightto beheard; in its very basicform it requires being madeaware of pending matters that may threaten the denial of life, liberty, orproperty, having" timeto becomeinformed ofsuch matters, andhaving an opportunity to communicate'apositio'n tothe appropriate decision-makingauthority. ' Importantly, dueprocess ensures fairness and justice. TheProposed Planviolates dueprocess rights. SectionII ofPolicy 6010 (ImplementationProcedures) outlines in detail the process for providing notice to and gathering inputfrom the public before the Superintendent proposes anattendance areaadjustment planto the Board. Inthis instance, thepublic was afforded anopportunity to review andcomment on the2019 Feasibility Stady^ The2019 Study included several options forhandling th7capacity issue andreceived public feedbackon those options. As a practical matter, it is not unusual for a planto be change based on caiefal consideration of public feedback. However, the AAC devised SeeTrinity Episcopal School Corp. v. Romney, 387 F. Supp. 1044, 1084(S. D.N. Y 1974). andthe Superintendent proposed a plan (the Proposed Plan) to the Boardthat didnot flow naturally from the2019 Feasibility Study or the subsequent public feedback that wasreceived.2 Infact, the plan that has been proposed to the Board is radically different in many significant waysand expanded the scope of the exercise without giving the public the opportunity to review andcomment onthe expanded scope and new options beforebeing proposed to theBoard. There is anillogical disconnect between broadcasting a rigorous process forpublic review and comment whenmitially introducing options forpotential attendance areaadjustments andthen notseek public review and comment onnew options that had not been previously previewedby thepublic or was not otherwise derived from initial public comment. TheSuperintendent should havepublished anamended Feasibility Studyfor public review and comment onthe expanded scopeand new redistricting options before proposing the plan to the Board. Becausethat process wasnot followed, the Superintendent violated vital dueprocess requirements. INCONSISTENCIESWITH POLICY 6010 a'OLYGON 1781 TheProposed Plan is inconsistent withPolicy 6010. Specifically, Policy6010(School AttendanceAreas), SectionIV(B)(2)(c) supports community stabilitythrough the consideration ofthe "frequency withwhich any one student is reassigned, making every attempt to not move a student morethan once at any school level orthe same student more frequently thanonce every fiveyears. " Polygon 178(and Polygon 1178)was redistricted to WestFriendship Elementary' School lastyear(2018)to address capacity issues atManor Woods Elementary School. Under theProposed