Rockville parents ask board to amend rezoning plan to avoid moving students out of Rockville

Karen Cablio Harrell, speaking for more than 20 parents from the Chartersley neighborhood, urged the board to consider a small, targeted amendment to a recently adopted rezoning plan that would otherwise move some Rockville students out of Rockville middle schools into Murfreesboro in middle school years and then return them to Rockville High two years later. “Our children have Rockville addresses and Rockville identities,” Harrell said, and moving them would disrupt continuity for students with IEPs and for band program participants.

Board members acknowledged the parents’ concerns but emphasized the planning challenges of making isolated exceptions. Several members described rezoning as a domino effect that can require multiple boundary adjustments, and one member warned that granting a pocket exemption would prompt similar requests from other neighborhoods. Speaker 4 explained that placement concerns for students with IEPs or 504 plans are handled through the IEP process, not by county zoning, and that only in extreme cases would the district agree to maintain a placement across zone lines.

Board staff also reminded parents of application deadlines for choice seats and grandfathering; Dr. McCann, the district’s choice school coordinator, said choice lottery applications are due Jan. 30 and eighth‑grade grandfathering is due Jan. 16. Board members said they appreciate the parents’ attendance and that staff would continue communications about choice seats, exemptions and the IEP process.

No formal motion to reopen or amend the rezoning map was made or recorded; the exchange remained a public comment and discussion.