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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Severna park was in phase 1. There was not much pushback in that phase.

Crofton IS in phase 2 and the residents there are actually fighting the redistricting to try to KEEP the poorest/most diverse kids in the Crofton feeder (Nantucket elementary.)  The redistricting as proposed has not at all been about diversifying school populations, which you seem to suggest.  In the case of Crofton it would have effectively reduced the FARMS rate at CHS and made it whiter.  [/quote]

Yeah but majority white neighborhoods in Crofton Woods area stay in Crofton instead of moving to South River. The overarching theme in Crofton is “leave us alone.” [/quote]

Um yeah, when you used our kids as numbers to prove your case that you needed to build Crofton High School, but are now discarding an oddly small cohort of them who will face the greatest change and burden of any other kids in the county? Yes, let us all go to the high school you USED US TO BUILD, and leave us alone. [/quote]

The last time I checked, you all knew that Crofton High School would be over-capacity the day it serves all 4 grades. Then when redistricting started for Phase II, you all wanted to pretend your clearly overcrowded high school isn't overcrowded using ridiculous excuses.

1. "The lunches have plenty of empty tables": Yeah, no shit. The lunches take place during 3rd period, when seniors with partial schedules are already gone for the day. Also, you all conveniently leave out the fact that CrHS used to have an hour lunch system (which the students highly preferred) until it started serving all 4 grades. Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, CrHS had to switch to 4 25-minute lunch blocks because it would be a fire hazard to have the amount of kids that would be in the cafeteria with the previous lunch block system and there aren't enough staff to cover that.

2. "The building feels spacious after seniors leave after 2nd period": That's probably true at every high school, doesn't change the fact that they're their for half of the school day. Also, not all seniors with a partial schedule take classes in the beginning of the day. Some take classes on A or B days only but are present for the full day, others come in later in the day.

3. "We can't build community with Arundel, we will be otherized as Crofton kids": Kids in Crofton attended Arundel High School up until 3 years ago and there were never issues with building community there at all. Nobody iced out Crofton kids for being from Crofton, nobody cares about what town anyone lives in. Most of the families moving to Arundel have Gambrills zip-codes--the same as Arundel High and many of the students already attending school there. Further, you're joining the Arundel cluster in middle school, when your kids are no more new than the kids from the other feeder elementary schools are. It's not like kids from Piney Orchard Elementary School magically know all the kids coming to Arundel Middle from Waugh Chapel Elementary School. EVERYONE is new to the Arundel cluster when they go to middle school because that's the first time the entire cluster is under one roof. In fact, numerous Arundel parents have been trying to set up events and do outreach with impacted Nantucket families to not only welcome the families with open arms, but also make the transition easier.

4. "We will be the only part of Crofton not attending Crofton schools": False. St. Stephens Church Road communities are within the Crofton CDP boundaries and are a stones throw from the Crofton cluster schools. They not only attend schools in a different cluster (Severn Run) but also take a bus up and down route 3, the same road you all claim is off limits for kids.

Instead of accepting the facts--which is that Crofton High and Middle are overcrowded, you all chose to deny those basic facts, come up with your own biased and skewed formulas for calculating  SRC (like by using counseling suites as classrooms), and attacked/blocked/insulted anyone who accepted those basic facts. The school system did everything they could to keep Crofton together. They recalculated the SRC of CrHS where they were able to, they knocked down walls between offices to convert them into classrooms, and they expanded Crofton Middle School several times until the building was maxed out and could not be further expanded due to its layout. They can't do anymore without harming the quality of instruction at Crofton schools. Using counseling suites for SRC only hurts CrHS because now you're teaching kids out of a space that was not designed for teaching and learning, and the SRC of the school looks good on paper, which prevents the school from getting funds for an expansion. Redistricting Crofton was necessary at this point.

The nasty and immature behavior of many Crofton parents and their inability to accept basic facts and work with the Board is exactly what got them where they are today. They also taught children that kicking, screaming, treating adults with authority with disrespect, and acting like entitled brats is the way to get what you want. If you didn't want Nantucket to be split up, you should have accepted that Crofton schools are overcrowded and come up with an equitable redistricting plan instead--not moving a block of townhouses that have mostly Black residents out of Crofton schools while simultaneously screaming about protecting diversity in the Crofton cluster. [/quote]

+100000

The Nantucket people absolutely bungled this from the beginning. The "Option Four" plan was outrageous and offended a lot of people who might have otherwise been on their side. Their behavior throughout has been disrespectful, mean, and rude. I know I'm not the only Crofton parent who was actively rooting for the split articulation. I'm looking forward to seeing the same group blow a bunch of money on their unsuccessful appeal. [/quote]

It's ridiculous that they think they will be able to appeal this. What are they going to argue? All of the facts are on AACPS' side. Crofton High School and Crofton Middle School are overcrowded, the neighborhoods being moved to the Arundel cluster are some of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in the Crofton cluster, and AACPS already has split articulations at other schools.

The whole argument about diversity is a load of BS. This redistricting will actually make the demographics of the Arundel and Crofton clusters more balanced with each other. The 2019 redistricting for Crofton High School caused Black students to become more concentrated in the Arundel cluster after these same mostly white families pushed for route 3 to be the boundary between Crofton and Arundel and booted majority-Black Waugh Chapel Town Center communities out of the Crofton feeder system and placed them in the Arundel feeder system. People warned them of the diversity concerns and they didn't care. The effect was that Crofton Elementary and Middle got whiter while Arundel Middle and High got more Black. Moving the Nantucket neighborhoods to the Arundel cluster should actually make the racial and SES demographics of the Arundel and Crofton clusters closer to equal.

[/quote]

They're going to argue that Route 3 is treacherous and that the split articulation is traumatic to the kids. Neither argument has any legal merit. I also suspect that they'll assert that not using Route 3 as the dividing line (thereby kicking that townhouse community out of the cluster and eliminating the need for the split) was arbitrary and capricious. [/quote]

Well route 3 really is treacherous.  And those townhouses are priced lower because of it. Maybe the one good that can come of this mess is the state trying to fix this disaster of a road.  Whoever thought it was a good idea to allow businesses in the median of a split highway where freeway drivers and freight trucks are trying to take a shortcut between DC and Baltimore is insane.  And now they are adding a 50 bay Amazon distribution hub.  That crazy road will be even more of a death trap.  [/quote]

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