OVERLEA, MD — Overlea High School in Baltimore County is facing a significant overcrowding problem, with about 600 more students than the school can hold projected to attend next school year.
Arkia Wade, the Democratic nominee for the county council, said, "It's already hard enough for students to, to, to learn, um, and when you have, uh, overcrowded classrooms and students, it's just not a, a good conducive learning Environment."
A plan is underway to address the issue, but local leaders are divided on the best path forward.
Democrats in the area are pushing for a new high school.
"We need a new high school in this area. As I always say, when you look at Northeast Baltimore County, we're the fastest growing, uh, group of residents in the entire county," said Shafiyq Hinton of the Overlea PTSA.
On Wednesday, Republican candidates offered a different solution: converting the Golden Ring Middle School building into a magnet school for tech students.
A boundary study is a required first step before the state will fund a new school.
Christina Pumphrey of the Baltimore County School Board said she personally supports building a completely new Overlea High School.
"However, in order to get state funding for that part of that process is a boundary study which at this point involves Loch Raven, Parkville, and Overlea to see if there are open seats because if there are open seats it's hard to get state funding for those new school projects." Pumphrey said.
Democratics representing the area want the new school. Whether it happens may come down to state funding, with the local delegate and senator needing to convince others in Annapolis to support the project.
Delegate Kim Ross (D-Baltimore County) said, "I know for me and for my district mates, our focus is gonna be on protecting our investments in education and public safety and our core social services."
Senator Carl Jackson (D-Baltimore County), a former Overlea High School alum, expressed a personal commitment to fighting for a new school.
"18 trailers in the back of this school is a community to me. They might as well put street signs on the sidewalks, so that's unacceptable. We want to do better," Jackson said.
As for the Republican proposal to convert Golden Ring Middle School, a building that is almost 100 years old, into a tech school, Pumphrey said it's more difficult than people may think.
"It's not just opening the doors, it's staffing that would need to be added. It's transportation. If we're talking about a trade school, those classrooms need very specific, um, devices and, uh, materials for depending on the CTE program that would, that we're talking about in those programs." Pumphrey said.
Immediate relief is expected to come from moving students around after the boundary study is completed.
There is currently no timeline for a new Overlea High School. Across the county in Lansdowne, it took four years to build its new high school.
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