REDISTRICTING HEARING IS 6 P.M. OCT. 26, REGISTRATION REQUIRED

 The Board of Education and Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) are hosting a virtual meeting through Zoom on the middle school redistricting process at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26. Staff members will explain the redistricting timeline, committee selection process, how alternatives will be created and provide opportunities for community input. The meeting will be broadcast live at ccboe.com and on YouTube. A question and answer period will follow the presentation. The presentation is posted on the CCPS website here.

Members of the public can join the meeting as an attendee and submit questions using the meeting chat feature. Staff will monitor the chat area and provide submitted questions to the panelists. Attendee registration is required and available through the link below. Registration closes at 6 p.m. on Monday.

Click here to register. Registration is limited to 1,000 attendees.

As part of the registration process, participants must submit their first and last name and email contact information. Anyone planning to register for the meeting must create or have an active Zoom account. Attendees will be required to sign in using a Zoom account. Audio and video for attendees will not be enabled; attendees can submit questions through the chat feature once the staff presentation is complete. CCPS reserves the right to remove any attendee from the meeting.

The middle school redistricting committee has not yet developed alternatives or proposals. Committee work begins following the Oct. 26 public meeting.

The redistricting committee’s task is to develop and evaluate potential middle school attendance zones for consideration by the Superintendent of Schools and the Board of Education. The middle school redistricting committee, selected at random at the Board’s Oct. 13 meeting, may take as long as five months to develop proposals. The Board of Education, through policy, requires the committee to submit two different proposals. The Superintendent and Board will hold public hearings on the committee’s proposals in the spring.

The redistricting will be comprehensive and could affect students at all eight CCPS middle schools. Middle school redistricting will revise attendance zones and reduce overcrowding at some schools. It will take effect in August 2022 once a renovation and expansion are complete at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School. The $48 million renovations and addition increase Stoddert’s square footage from 105,800 to 148,317 square feet and its state-rated capacity from 711 to 970.

Staff regularly posts information about redistricting on the school system’s website at https://www.ccboe.com/index.php/redistricting-middle-school-ql. 

Redistricting timeline

• On Oct. 13, the Board randomly selected parent and community members from those who applied to serve.
• The Board will hold a public information session on Monday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be virtual and streamed live at ccboe.com. Committee members will attend to hear concerns or suggestions from the community.
• Starting next month, the redistricting committee will meet weekly at the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building in La Plata for as long as it takes to develop two different middle school redistricting proposals. Dates and times for meetings will be determined after the Oct. 26 public information meeting.
• The Superintendent will present the committee’s two proposals to the community at two public meetings in the spring and after the recommendations are complete. Tentatively, the committee will submit its proposals at the April 20, 2021, Board of Education meeting. The Superintendent will hold a public hearing on the proposals shortly after that presentation. A fact sheet outlining the proposals will be emailed to parents and posted on the school system’s website at https://www.ccboe.com/index.php/redistricting-middle-school-ql.
• The Superintendent’s recommendation will be presented to the Board of Education the following month, on May 11. The Board will schedule a public hearing before approval of the boundary changes and following the Superintendent’s recommendation to the Board.
• The Board will approve the new school attendance areas for the 2022-23 school year at its meeting on June 8. The redistricting decision occurs one year before taking effect.
• Redistricting takes effect at the start of the 2022-23 school year when CCPS finishes the renovation and addition at Stoddert. All students affected by the redistricting will change schools in August/September 2022.

This schedule may change depending on the length of time it takes the committee to develop its alternatives.

Throughout the process, CCPS will provide information through telephone calls and emails, CCPS television stations Comcast Channel 96 and Verizon Fios Channel 12, and the CCPS website at https://www.ccboe.com/index.php/redistricting-middle-school-ql. The Board will also accept written comments. Send comments or questions to redistrict@ccboe.com or Charles County Public Schools, Redistricting, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646.