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Residents urge board to delay or choose lower-impact redistricting option; Centennial Lane families oppose moving polygons
Summary
At a long public hearing the evening of Nov. 6, dozens of speakers — many from Centennial Lane and Columbia-area schools — asked the Howard County Board of Education either to adopt a low-impact plan (concept 4 or 5) or to delay redistricting until data and new-housing impacts are validated; speakers raised transportation cost, community stability and data-timing concerns.
A packed redistricting public hearing at the Howard County Board of Education meeting on Nov. 6 focused on competing boundary proposals for the county’s Western Columbia and Centennial-area schools.
Multiple families, students and PTA representatives from Centennial Lane Elementary School and adjacent neighborhoods urged the board not to reassign polygons that would send walkers to distant schools. They argued that the lived experience inside Centennial Lane (classroom space, cafeteria flow, band room, and portable usage) does not match the high utilization figure quoted on maps and that moving small groups of students would fracture contiguous neighborhoods and force new bus tiers that add recurring transportation costs. Several speakers…
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