Parents reject plan to realign schools

Most speakers at hearings do not want sixth grade moved from elementary schools to middle schools

Option B would retain the current formats of elementary school—pre-kindergarten through sixth grade— and reduce overcrowding in elementary schools as boundaries are redrawn to move students into the new Laurel-Beltsville Elementary School, which opens in August.

Option F would move sixth grade to middle schools and convert Beltsville Elementary from a pre-k through sixth grade school to a pre-k through eighth grade. Overcrowding would be reduced in the elementary schools but increase in middle schools.

Elementary schools that would lose their sixth grades under Option F are: Bond Mill, Calverton, Deerfield Run, Greenbelt, James Harrison, Laurel, Montpelier, Oaklands and Scotchtown Hills.

Speakers pointed out that with Option F, two middle schools would end up over capacity. Dwight D. Eisenhower would go from percent to 101 percent capacity and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle in Beltsville would go from 95 to 113 percent.

‘‘[Option B] will significantly reduce overcrowding in Laurel elementary schools. Plan F will simply shift overcrowding to middle schools,” said Bond Mill parent Mark Bracket at the March 4 meeting.

Bond Mill Elementary is currently the most overcrowded school in the district, operating at 138 percent capacity, said Derek Mitchell, Prince George’s County executive director of new and charter schools.

Bus driver Kristi Harman, who drives children to Laurel elementary schools, said Option F would create overcrowding on buses.

Option F costs $727,082 more than Option B, and an additional $584,082 annually in staffing and transportation costs, to accommodate the increase in the number of students who would need to take a bus to get to school, Mitchell said.

Both plans would redraw school boundaries, moving children from Beltsville, Bond Mill, Montpelier and Oaklands elementary schools into the new Laurel-Beltsville school.

Some Oaklands Elementary School parents said they were against both proposals, which would reduce overcrowding at the school, currently at 128 percent capacity, but would move children of homeowners from Oaklands into the new Laurel-Beltsville school, leaving Oaklands populated mostly by apartment dwellers.

Carmen McGill, Oaklands PTA president, said Oaklands would lose parent volunteers and donations under the transfer.

‘‘These are people you are dealing with, not geographic points or numbers, and the decisions you make will affect them for the rest of their lives,” she said at the March 4 hearing.

Oaklands sixth-grader Kaitlinn Uwaezuoke, who is opposed to Option F, said some of her classmates weren’t mature enough to go to a middle school yet.

Some speakers at the March 5 hearing said they liked Option F, but that more time was needed to plan for such drastic changes.

‘‘I love the idea of a pre-K through eighth [grade]—every child is thought of,” said Gloria O’Brien, whose daughter attends Martin Luther King Jr. ‘‘But we just need to slow down and not put the cart before the horse.”

Beltsville Elementary parent Jackie Cooper said she would also support Option F given more time and further planning.

‘‘Beltsville is an excellent elementary school,” she said. ‘‘It can be an excellent middle school, but not in this time period. ... We don’t have the space [right now].”

The board is slated to make a decision on the proposals on March 26 or in April, said county schools spokesman John White