Boundary options offered for new school

Latest elementary school to open in Milestone in 2009; lines will be set next March

The advisory committee includes representatives of the three affected elementary schools — Clarksburg, Cedar Grove and Little Bennett.

‘‘It is a growing area, there is a lot of new development, and in an area like this change happens pretty frequently,” Bruce Crispell, director of long-range planning for the county school system, said after the meeting. ‘‘I think that is what the committee is wrestling with. Areas that were changed when we opened Little Bennett may face change again.”

Clarksburg elementary No. 8 is expected to open in August 2009. The school will sit on 10 acres on Royal Crown Drive in Germantown’s Milestone community. More than 740 students from Germantown, Clarksburg and Damascus will attend the school, which will cost $22 million to build, school officials have reported.

The first boundary option is the most geographically consistent for the homes within the Clarksburg Cluster, Deborah Szyfer, senior facility manager for the school system’s division of long-range planning, said at the meeting.

Under this option, Cedar Grove Elementary School students living in Milestone, south of Father Hurley Boulevard, western Greenridge Estates, and east of Route 27 south of Clarksburg Village Phase II would be assigned to the new school. Clarksburg Elementary School students in Hurley Ridge, Tapestry, Greenridge Estates and Summerfield Crossing would also be assigned to the new school. Little Bennett Elementary students in Park Ridge, Clarksburg Village, Arora Hills phases I and II and part of Clarksburg Village Phase II would then go to Cedar Grove.

The second option is similar to the first except houses north of Burnt Hill Road up to the county line east of Little Bennett Regional Park would go to Cedar Grove, as would students living in Fountain View.

The third option is the same as the first option except that the new school’s students would live in the Highlands of Clarksburg, Timber Creek Estates, Clarksbrook Estates, part of Clarksburg Village Phase II and Arora Hills phases I and II. Students living in southern Milestone, south of Father Hurley Boulevard, Greenridge Estates and Cabin Branch would go to Cedar Grove Elementary.

The fourth option is also the same as the first option, except part of Clarksburg Village Phase II would go to the new school and western Greenridge Estates and Cabin Branch would go to Cedar Grove Elementary.

The fifth option differs from the first because students living in Cabin Branch, Eastside, Meadows at Hurley Ridge and houses south of West Old Baltimore Road west of Interstate 270 would go to the new school. Students living Cabin Branch would go to Cedar Grove Elementary School.

Shiva Sobhani lives in the Highlands of Clarksburg and has a son in kindergarten at Little Bennett Elementary and another son that will be entering kindergarten next year. Three of the five options have students from her development going to Clarksburg Elementary after they moved to Little Bennett when the school opened.

‘‘We have to be sensitive to the rural community, but I think we are kidding ourselves if we ignore the fact of what they are selling Clarksburg on,” Sobhani said. ‘‘It was building a community, building these ballparks and building those new schools. They are breaking up these new communities and these are the reasons why people move to Clarksburg.”

Committee members will take the boundary options back to their respective schools to discuss each option with parents, and then report back to the committee April 3, Crispell said. The county school system could create new boundary options based on the feedback

The boundary study will be submitted to the school system in June. The school board will establish boundaries for Clarksburg elementary No. 8 in March 2009.