Baltimore County Schools could rezone the boundary between Hillcrest and Westchester elementary schools in Catonsville.
Five homes on the dead-end section of Beaumont Avenue are zoned for Hillcrest but surrounded by the Westchester zone. At the end of last school year, five students lived in the impacted area.
Wednesday night at a boundary committee meeting at Westchester Elementary School, the district recommended rezoning the five homes for Westchester.
“Currently what we have is a school bus coming to pick up students within a boundary that attends a different school,” Kenny West, a manager in the district’s transportation department, said at the meeting. “So while the goal here is to also align the neighborhood, it will create some transportation efficiencies by not having buses from different schools overlapping.”
The new boundary would not impact any middle or high schools and would start in the 2025-26 school year.
According to district data, Hillcrest has a capacity of 708 students, Westchester has a capacity of 689 students and both schools had an enrollment around 660 last fall. By 2033, the district projects Hillcrest to be over capacity by around 45 students while Westchester is projected to be at 99% capacity.
The boundary study committee includes two teacher and staff representatives, two parents from each school and the area educational advisory council chair. Both principals are also on the committee but cannot vote on the final boundary.
“The primary considerations are efficient use of capacity in affected schools and maintaining or increasing the diversity among schools to reflect the diversity of the region and the school system,” Mike Gotfredson, a specialist in the district’s strategic planning office, said. “These are kind of the two primary things we look at whenever we’re doing a boundary change.”
A public information session is scheduled for Oct. 16 in the Westchester cafeteria from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. The boundary committee will meet again Nov. 13 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., also at Westchester . The committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Education on March 25. The board will vote May 6.
