26 August 2000

Editor
The Capital
Annapolis, MD

Since we moved to Crofton in 1997, there has reportedly been rapid growth in the population in our area, but the county as a whole grew by only a small fraction of that amount. Crofton elementary and middle schools have clearly been built as needed and are well-maintained, but the students who needed those schools are now in need of a high school. However, there are no new west county schools in the School Board's $100M capitol improvement budget.

Since 1998, our 1500 Crofton high schoolers have been split between Arundel HS and South River HS, where some unused capacity existed. The school board was perhaps wisely frugal in making use of that capacity before approving a 13th high school, but now the Edgewater/Davisonville area is growing fast and that capacity will soon be needed for students who live in the neighborhood of the school. The distance from Crofton to South River HS means a 6:20am school bus pickup in our neighborhood. Is Crofton a remote and sparsely populated area in which one expects to ride nearly an hour to school? Hardly! In fact, we have more than enough students to populate a more local high school.

Land is available in Gambrills for a west county high school, purchased for that purpose when the need was first perceived. The availability of land at no cost, just where the need for an additional high school is the greatest in our county, makes a natural decision to proceed with a 13th county high school in Gambrills.

We ask Dr. Parham to persevere with her plans for a west county high school in Gambrills, and we ask the school board and county council to recognize growth patterns by funding it at its appropriate priority level.
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Tom and Gwen Moore Email: tomem@earthlink.net
1694 Wickham Way +1-410-721-8557
Crofton, MD 21114 Fax: +1-707-988-7835