The St. Mary's County Public Schools board on Tuesday directed consultants to return with phased redistricting options focused on relieving Leonardtown High School, which board members said is roughly "400 to 450 students over what the capacity is," according to Speaker 1.

Board members and staff said they want a plan that minimizes disruption: keep current ninth‑ and tenth‑grade students at Leonardtown and phase in changes beginning with current eighth graders and rising fifth graders, rather than shifting large numbers of students mid‑high school. "My direction to the group is that we maintain Leonardtown High School the way it is for the current class," Speaker 1 said, urging a cohorted, phased approach.

Why it matters: Leonardtown is the system's most acute overcrowding hotspot, and different Canon Group options presented earlier ranged from broad, systemwide boundary realignments that would affect roughly a third of elementary students to more targeted plans. Trustees said the board's authority over school boundaries gives it latitude to tailor consultant proposals to local priorities before Canon returns with specific recommendations in January.

What the board asked Canon to do: Trustees asked Canon to prepare analyses that include (a) a phased scenario using the current eighth‑grade class as the primary transition cohort, (b) variants that show with‑and‑without feeder adjustments at middle and elementary levels, and (c) transportation implications for each option. "When they come back in January, they're gonna come back with some very specific proposals," Speaker 2 said, and Canon will present a recommendation to the board on Feb. 4 ahead of a public hearing scheduled for Feb. 18.

Transportation and logistics: Board members and staff repeatedly cautioned that a cohorted, phased approach increases transportation complexity—potentially requiring parallel bus routes in the same neighborhoods for different cohorts. Staff said precise address‑level assignment and transportation modeling will be required to evaluate feasibility and costs before final decisions are made.

Development and intergovernmental coordination: Trustees also asked the superintendent and staff to coordinate with the Leonardtown mayor and town council and with county land‑use staff to factor planned and proposed housing developments into boundary planning. Members cited several large proposed tracts that could add hundreds of homes and stressed the need to account for likely future enrollment when assigning undeveloped parcels to schools.

Next steps: Canon will analyze survey results and development data, return in January with detailed options and transportation scenarios, and present a single recommendation on Feb. 4; the board will hold a public hearing on Feb. 18 and expects to notify affected families by April if boundaries change for the coming school year.