Improvement Association President Offers Solutions to Prevent Overcrowding

Perry Hall community leaders are presenting a united front to tackle short- and long-term solutions to overcrowding in northeast Baltimore County public schools.

County Councilman David Marks and Perry Hall Improvement Association president Dennis Robinson this week sent letters to Superintendent S. Dallas Dance requesting a third community input meeting to discuss overcrowding.

Robinson's letter is attached. Marks's letter can be read here.

The most immediate concern is focused on Chapel Hill Elementary School, which Patch reported earlier this week could be about 200 students over-capacity next year. New numbers, however, indicate that while the school remains overcrowded, the original report may have been an over-estimation.

"The Chapel Hill Elementary School numbers are lower than what I was told by the PTA; however, there is still an overcrowding problem in the northeast that needs to be addressed," Marks said. "Schools are overcrowded in areas that have experienced little development. That tells me that the northeast is experiencing demographic changes like we have seen in Towson, as older residents sell their homes to younger families."

Read Marks's latest Patch blog post: Take Steps Now to Reduce Northeast Overcrowding

In addition to developing strategies to alleviate overcrowding at the elementary school level, Robinson has requested Baltimore County Public Schools look at ways to prevent further overcrowding at Perry Hall High School.

In his letter to Dance, Robinson suggested, "strict enforcement of residency requirements, reconsideration of the boundary lines and increased utilization of magnet schools that have additional capacity ... greatly exceeding their respective capacities in the future."

Robinson's letter concludes with a request for the schools system to initiate planning of another high school in the northeast school zone.

Stay with Patch as we continue to cover this story.

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Letter:

Dear Superintendent Dance:

I am writing in my capacity as President of the Perry Hall Improvement Association (PHIA), one of the oldest, largest and most active community organizations in Baltimore County. 

This letter serves as a follow-up to Councilman David Marks’s May 9, 2013 letter to you regarding overcrowding in Perry Hall area schools.

I am writing to support Councilman Marks’s request to conduct public input sessions to identify and evaluate strategies to reduce overcrowding in Perry Hall schools.  Although the PHIA is especially concerned about the short-term projections for enrollment at Chapel Hill Elementary School in the Honeygo community, we also ask that Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) identify and evaluate strategies to prevent the other schools in the area from greatly exceeding their respective capacities in the future. 

The PHIA also requests that BCPS take steps to reduce overcrowding at Perry Hall High School as soon as possible, including strict enforcement of residency requirements, reconsideration of the boundary lines and increased utilization of magnet schools that have additional capacity. Finally, the PHIA requests that BCPS initiate planning for an additional high school in northeastern Baltimore County, which has been at the top of the PHIA’s list of priorities for many years.

Thank you for your considerations of these requests.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or want to discuss these issues.  Thank you for your dedication and commitment to the students in the BCPS system.

Very truly yours,

Dennis M. Robinson, Jr.
President, Perry Hall Improvement Association

Related Content:

• Take Steps Now to Reduce Northeast Overcrowding
• Marks Outlines Overcrowding Concerns in Letter to Superintendent
• Perry Hall High Ranks 7th in Classroom Size
• Baltimore County Elementary Schools To Be Beyond Maximum Capacity in Four Years