ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) - A school board in suburban Maryland has given final approval to a redistricting plan that faced overwhelming opposition from parents.
The Howard County Board of Education on Thursday moved forward with a plan to reassign about 5,400 students to different schools for the upcoming academic year. Officials say the effort will address overcrowding as well as concentrations of low-income students at some facilities.
Superintendent Michael Martirano says the redistricting will undo about “a decade worth of overcrowding” at schools and advance “socioeconomic equity across all schools.”
But parents have disagreed with Martirano since he first proposed the move in August, expressing concerns at public meetings over longer commutes, availability of extra-curricular activities and the pressure students may feel as they try to adjust to new schools.
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