The committee tasked with reducing the number of students inside Overlea High School met for the second time to brainstorm attendance boundary drafts on Wednesday night.
Overlea High School currently has 18 portable classrooms on-site and serves around 1,600 students, despite a state-rated capacity of just over 1,100. The school was at over 140% capacity as of last year and Baltimore County Public Schools projects it will reach around 160% capacity by 2035.
“We’re looking for any relief, currently the relief goal is 200 (students) to 250 (students), which will create less of an impact, it doesn’t give us ideally what we need, so we are going to (be) continuously advocating for an expedited outcome,” said Crystal Mercer, the Parent Teacher Student Association President for Overlea High School. “I do applaud the effort of (BCPS) trying to do something, immediately.”
“Currently Overlea High School is overly crowded,” said Paul Taylor, the director of facilities construction and improvement for Baltimore County Public Schools. “It takes years to get sufficient funds to build a high school so in the interim we decided to do a boundary study to shift some of the boundaries so some of the students currently enrolled at Overlea can attend a different school.”
The Overlea High School Capacity Relief Boundary Study is to provide capacity relief for the 2027-2028 school year.
A committee made up of principals, parents and staff will meet up to six times, including a public information session to hear from the public, before making their official recommendation to the Board of Education on new attendance boundaries.
“Our teachers are tired; they are doing the best they can to remain energized so that they can help to empower our students and give them all they should have academically,” said Mercer. “But it is exhausting.”
Under the plan, students will be shuffled among Overlea High School, Loch Raven High School and Parkville High School to try and alleviate the overcrowding at the school. The committee will then present a draft of the attendance boundaries for the Board of Education to approve.
“Typically, in any of these meetings they will develop additional options for consideration and then at the third meeting they’ll narrow down their choices to which ones they’d like to bring to public information session,” said Taylor. “That meeting, the public will interact directly with committee members and share concerns.”
The public information meeting is set to happen November 18 at Nottingham Middle School.
BCPS is collecting public comments for the committee now through January 13.
READ MORE:Baltimore County committee tackles Overlea High School crowding
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