AACPS To Hold Redistricting Community Meetings

Student enrollment is growing within Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS). To address overcrowding and facility utilization, AACPS is now undergoing Phase II for redistricting, which includes the Severna Park and Broadneck clusters.

Three upcoming community meetings will allow residents to provide feedback on plans that AACPS revealed in February. Meetings will be held at the following times and locations:

• Tuesday, March 25: Southern High School at 6:00pm
• Wednesday, April 9: Carol S. Parham Building at 6:30pm
• Tuesday, April 29: Annapolis Middle School at 6:00pm

Each meeting will feature a brief presentation about the process, timeline, and three scenarios developed by consultant WXY, which AACPS has hired for both phases of the redistricting process. Time will then be allocated for up to 30 speakers to provide public comment, with each speaker being given two minutes. To allow for diversity of voices, speakers may only speak at one community meeting.

Those wishing to speak must sign up for the meeting at which they wish to offer comment in advance through links available at www.aacps.org/phase2redistricting. Comments will be offered in person only. Registration will close 72 hours before the start of each community meeting.

If more than 30 people sign up to speak at a given meeting, a lottery will be conducted to determine speaking slots. Those who receive a slot to speak will be notified in advance of the meeting at which they will speak. Those who do not receive slots to speak will be able to provide written comments.

Superintendent of Schools Mark Bedell will consider input from the meetings and the online tool available here as he prepares to provide a recommendation to the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County in July. The board will then hold public hearings to solicit even more input prior to adopting a plan in November. Speakers who speak at the community meetings are still eligible to testify at a public hearing. The adopted plan will go into effect in August 2026 for the 2026-2027 school year.

Because of the timing of these community meetings, the deadline for comments through the web tool linked above has been extended to May 15.

Additionally, AACPS has discovered an error in feeder pattern maps that had been displayed on the informational page provided to the public. Those maps have been corrected and are available along with other pertinent information on the process here.

Want to learn more? The Severna Park Voice covered the redistricting process in the February edition, and Board of Education member Dana Schallheim shared her thoughts in a column for the March edition.