The St. Mary’s County Board of Education has voted to accelerate planning for a new elementary school in the central part of the county. The decision to begin planning for the new elementary school in Fiscal Year 2016 also has led to the putting off until FY 2020 of planning for a building at the Evergreen Elementary School site that would house pre-K activities.

The decision is a recognition of the reality that elementary schools in the central/southern part of the county are bearing the brunt of growth in the school system. Elementary schools overcrowded now and expected to get worse without a new school are Evergreen, Hollywood, Leonardtown, and Park Hall.

Construction is underway on the Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary School which will open in August of 2015, but that new school will only partially relieve the overcrowding at Evergreen and Leonardtown elementary schools.

The site of the proposed new school has not been announced. According to Director of Capital Planning and Green Schools Kimberly Howe, her office is “currently negotiating (the) site.”

The school board will begin the redistricting process for the Captain Walter Francis Duke E.S. this summer looking for a decision next February. The opening of another new elementary school would cause another round of redistricting.

According to Howe, the county is experiencing a decline in total births so the growth in the school system is being caused by people moving into the county. The “birth to kindergarten transition” is at 90 percent, indicating children born in the county are likely to start attending school in the county.

The decision to switch priorities was made Wednesday at the school board regular meeting. The decision is included in the July 2014 Educational Facilities Master Plan that will now go to the Maryland Public School Construction Program for approval.

The plan also includes planning in FY 2019 for a new transitional high school at a site in Mechanicsville, as previously reported: http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/37578