The Board of Education at its Nov. 9 meeting approved the Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) middle school redistricting plan, which takes effect next school year.
In a vote of 4 to 2, the Board approved Superintendent Maria V. Navarro’s recommendation of a modified version of Proposal A which balances state-rated capacity and includes movement of students among all eight CCPS middle school zones.
The redistricting measures address the anticipated growth in student enrollment while adhering closely to each school’s state rated capacity guidelines. The approved plan moves a smaller number of current CCPS students and better balances growth in neighborhoods zoned for Benjamin Stoddert and Milton M. Somers middle schools.
The Stoddert and Somers communities are in growth areas of St. Charles and La Plata. Stoddert is currently undergoing a $48 million renovation to modernize and expand the building. The project raises the school’s state rated capacity to a projected 975 students. This has a cascade effect on other CCPS middle schools resulting in less overcrowding with enrollments closer to the state rated capacity for each. Nearly 6,100 students are expected to be in middle school at the start of the 2022-23 school year.
An interactive map is available online that shows each new school zone, effective at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Residents can input an address into the search bar in the top left corner. The school zone correlates with the color key on the left side of the site. To view the map, click here. CCPS also has a redistricting page on its website with information about the process at https://www.ccboe.com/index.php/redistricting-middle-school-ql.
While the interactive map is up-to-date for the 2022-23 school year, School Locator, the online tool used by the CCPS transportation department, will not show the most current school zone information by address until the start of the new school year.
The redistricting process began in October 2020 when a committee was selected through a random drawing by members of the Board of Education of Charles County. Members volunteered to serve on the committee which was made up of two elementary, one high school and eight middle school parents. Additional committee members included four school principals and three community members selected by the Board. Three local government planners and CCPS staff supported the committee. A total of six public hearings about the middle school redistricting process were held — two in person and four virtually.
