The following is an update from Delegates Kathy Szeliga and Ryan Nawrocki
Many schools in Baltimore County are experiencing a crisis level of overcrowding. Yet, development continues to be approved at record levels, especially in eastern Baltimore County. Allowing development when there is not enough space in schools hurts students and families.
According to Baltimore County Public Schools, as Fox Baltimore reported, 50 Baltimore County Public Schools exceed 100% student capacity. How are children supposed to focus and learn in overcrowded classrooms, not to mention the safety problems we’ve seen with student behavior in the halls? Dundalk High School is at 149% student capacity. That is ridiculous. Sparrows Point High and Towson High are right behind it at 130% capacity, and all high schools in the southeastern part of the county have an average student capacity of 121%. Some schools like Perry Hall High School, which has been overcrowded for years, have resorted to having students learn in trailers instead of properly addressing the issue. These statistics are staggering, and this problem could have been avoided with the right planning and requirements before development occurred. However, there is some hope in addressing this major issue.
The Baltimore County Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance Task Force (APFO) was established in August 2020 by the County to study how to enhance development to Baltimore County’s needs, particularly those concerning public school facilities. This task force was supposed to be a tool utilized by the county to manage appropriate growth in our communities by establishing a process for analyzing proposed development projects and their impacts on public infrastructure. This infrastructure includes water, sewage line capacities, schools, and roads. We believe other factors like hospital bed capacity and public safety response times should also be included.
We have long criticized the APFO for its shortcomings in not mandating planned development or analytical studies as prerequisites before approving a development project, which has led to the overcrowding of schools. Out-of-control, unplanned, and unstudied new development projects that get approved without requirements to address our already overburdened infrastructure and schools are why our schools are overcrowded. We have raised great concerns about this for quite some time, and now there is hope to correct the problem.
Recently, the Baltimore County Council introduced new legislation (PDF) to tackle the issue of development projects leading to severely overcrowded schools, and we need your help to pass it. These reforms seek to set more restrictions on development related to public schools.
The first reform in this legislation would seek to change the definition of school capacity. Under the current rule, public school facilities are only considered overcrowded if they reach 115% of student capacity. That sounds like bad math to us. If a school has 100 seats but 115 students attend, that’s a problem. This new legislation would place capacity at where it should be, which is 100%.
Another reform of this legislation would be to eliminate the “adjacency loophole,” which allows developers to build projects in already overcrowded school districts as long as one school nearby is below capacity. This loophole existed in the hope that students would be shifted from overcrowded schools to ones below the capacity limit. This type of redistricting never occurs meaning that the students never actually get shifted. This was just another lousy policy that had the opposite effect of helping. Eliminating this loophole would make it harder for development to be approved near a public school over capacity. It’s an excellent start.
This bill will also establish an Interdepartmental Committee on School Overcrowding to examine a development project’s impact on public schools. This is important in controlling the influx of development projects crowding our schools. Overlea High School is extremely overcrowded yet a sea of new apartments has been approved in the White Marsh area where many of these students would attend high school. How does this make sense?
What can YOU do? Sign up to testify for Bill 31-24 (PDF) on Tuesday, May 14. You can testify in person or virtually. The hearing begins at 4:00 PM in the Baltimore County Council Chambers in Towson. You must sign up to testify between 9 AM and 3 PM on Tuesday through Baltimore County’s online Speaker Registration Form (PDF).
If you want to submit written testimony, email it to [email protected].
We need your help to pass this bill. Citizens, parents, and students must act. Although this legislation does not fully resolve the issue, it is a great start to tackle future development that leads to further overcrowding in our communities and schools.
We support Councilman David Marks and others on the Baltimore County Council in their efforts to pass these reforms. Together, we can make Baltimore County better.
