There is one week until a final decision is scheduled to be made (November 21st) on the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) redistricting plans from the Howard County Board of Education (HoCoBOE). I kind of feel like the person in the photo above while trying to figure out where things stand right now in the process.

On November 5th the HoCoBOE made the decision / announcement not to share information relating to board member proposals on social media. It was stated that the repository of official information is BoardDocs and that we should use that resource for information going forward. I tell you I have tried…have you…feeling frustrated at the lack of information on that platform? I am.

Now the HCPSS website relating to School Boundary Review Process was updated with links to videos and documents related to the Board Public Work Sessions…that is a good thing. I wish it was updated this morning with the information from the work session yesterday…but I am sure it will be at some point today.

I guess if you have a spare 4, 6 or 8 hours (depending on the session) you could watch every second of every meeting relating to the decisions and get a general idea…I am betting most residents in our community do not have that kind of time…and yet they still are interested in how things are progressing forward…especially this late in the process.

We know some “polygons” that were slated to be moved may not be moved…it appears that some “polygons” that were not part of the “proposed plan” may be moved in the final decision. I am doing my best to track it all but I am finding it difficult with the information provided publicly from HCPSS and the HoCoBOE on BoardDocs.

I recognize and applaud all of the HoCoBOE members for the work they are doing to make the best decisions for our community. We all know that this is not an easy job. I just wish the school system could find a way to communicate decisions or proposals better than what I am seeing today. I think the last thing anyone wants is for the community to be surprised at the final decision(s) made or why those decisions were made regarding school boundaries in the future.

When this is all said and done we will be looking to do this again in a couple of years when High School #13 is ready to come online. I do not expect it to be a full redistricting plan like what we are seeing today but I do expect a modified version affecting multiple schools on the eastern side of the county. I hope the school system can adjust / improve their communication processes in order to better inform parents, students and the community.

Have thoughts…let me know in the comments.

Scott E