Community members look over one of the scenarios proposed by Sage Policy Group
On Thursday night at Carver High School in Towson, Anirban Basu of Sage Policy Group told approximately 200 parents and community members about the seven scenarios his firm has developed to relieve overcrowding in Baltimore County high schools.
But, Basu said before the presentation, those options “are likely to change” based on the feedback he’s already received and the input that’s still to come.
One thing he’s been hearing — and it was echoed Thursday night — is concern that his contract with Baltimore County Public Schools only looks at enrollment capacity but does not take into account the structural quality of the facilities.
For example, Dulaney High is not overcrowded, but it’s been ranked by BCPS as one of the worst high school buildings in the county. Does it make sense, parents ask, to redistrict more students into a crumbling school that lacks air conditioning?
Questions and comments from community members
Basu said Sage Policy is open to expanding the scope of the study, though that would be up to BCPS. When asked if the study might be expanded to consider facility condition, a spokesman for BCPS replied, “The study’s scope includes projections of future student enrollment, analysis of residential development, and analysis of historical enrollment trends.”
Sage Policy is the same firm that was hired by Baltimore County to analyze the economic impact of the Towson Row project. Basu encouraged the county council to approve the $43 million in tax breaks for the development that the late Kevin Kamenetz had proposed, and the council did so.
“I was excited to hear that they may include a review of aging infrastructure and facility condition because I think when we’re looking at this kind of capital expenditure, we have to be responsible and we have to see how can we solve the conditions and facilities that plague certain high schools as well as accommodate seats throughout the county,” said Yara Cheikh, a Dulaney parent and education activist.
She said she was disappointed, however, that while the overall cost of each scenario was given, the numbers were not broken down by school or project.
“So we don’t know what $500 million in projects looks like,” she said. “We can estimate that and conjecture but we don’t see the quality or the division of the project for each high school, and that may cause more trouble down the line.”
Community members listen to a presentation by Anirban Basu of Sage Policy Group
Some parents said they were concerned that all but one of the scenarios showed Towson High at a capacity of more than 2,000 students. At 28 acres, Towson High sits on the smallest plot of land of any high school in the county. Other high schools are on much larger sites: Parkville is on 44 acres, for example, Loch Raven is on 46 acres, and Catonsville is on 63 acres.
Towson has a state-rated capacity of 1,260 students and the current enrollment is about 1,550. A “Students Count” report from BCPS says that Towson High is projected to have 2,022 students in the year 2026.
A significantly larger school is concerning not only for how it could effect enrolled students — especially the athletes that are already madly juggling field space — but also for the surrounding communities, said Tracey Marcantoni, who lives in Burkleigh Square, which is sandwiched in between Towson High and Towson University.
“We’re concerned about the traffic, about the sports fields, we’re concerned about events at the school and how many people it will draw in, the buses, all of that,” she said. “It’s going to affect our quality of life in our neighborhood.”
Jen Horton, whose kindergartner is in the magnet program at Cromwell Bridge Elementary, said the district she’s zoned for doesn’t have a great elementary or middle school, so knowing that she could at least send her child to the highly ranked Towson High was something she had counted on.
“It’s still really new information but I think overall I like the plans that move the fewest kids and build up the capacity of the current schools,” she said. “But I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to breaking [Towson High] into two schools as long as they were decent schools. It’s just the idea of potentially losing a decent school and being funneled into a school that is not a great school.”
Basu said BCPS did not give him a limit in terms of how much the proposed solutions should cost, nor did they advise him against proposing buying land to build a new school in a new location — something he said Thursday is theoretically possible but likely cost prohibitive.
“If there was infinite amounts of money, my supposition is we would have many scenarios here offering new construction for a Towson High School at a smaller footprint and smaller size,” Basu said. “The issue is that money is quite finite and so there’s a balancing act that has to take place between financial considerations and the best interest of students.” 
Councilman David Marks, whose district includes the Towson area, said he was happy to see that all seven of the presented scenarios show Towson High getting a new school building. (In some scenarios there is just a new building, and in others there is a new building and redistricting, which would decrease enrollment.)
When asked if he’d like to see the school limited to a certain number of students, Marks said he doesn’t want to see Towson grow to the size of Perry Hall High, which has just over 2,000 students.
“I’m not pleased with the scenario that simply builds additions at all the schools,” Marks said. “Additions in many cases represent a Band-Aid to the problem — all you do is crowd the interior parts of the school. That’s a mistake we made at Perry Hall High School. We probably need two to three new high schools, including Towson High.”
Despite the fact that feedback from focus groups that were conducted over the past few months found that 58 percent of the participants wanted high schools to have enrollments of between 1,000 and 1,400, none of the seven scenarios includes that option for Towson-area non-magnet high schools.
And only one scenario has Towson High School at or below the enrollment limit recommended by the state Board of Education of 1,700 students. None of the scenarios have Dulaney at less than 1,984 students.
To see details about the seven proposed scenarios, visit this BCPS page. To see a summary of what focus groups have already told Sage Policy, click here. To share your thoughts with Sage Policy, complete this survey.
The third and final information session of the month will be 7pm on July 17 at Dundalk High School. Basu said there will be additional sessions in September.
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-Kris Henry,
The Towson Flyer