New Crofton high school
Who will be the first students in 2020?
A new Crofton area high school will open its doors to students in September 2020, but who those students will be hasn’t been decided.
The Anne Arundel County public school system is establishing a redistricting committee to recommend an attendance area for the $135 million school, which is expected to serve nearly 1,700 students.
The committee will have two representatives each from every potentially affected school: Arundel and South River high schools; Arundel and Crofton middle schools; and Crofton, Crofton Meadows, Crofton Woods, Nantucket and Piney Orchard elementary schools.
A school’s representation on the committee does not necessarily mean that school’s attendance area or feeder pattern will change, AACPS said in a news release.
Officials broke ground on the new school in November, and the AACPS said the Crofton school is about 25 percent complete. It will open to freshman and sophomore students in 2020. Incoming juniors will join in Fall 2021, and rising seniors will attend starting in Fall 2022.
Other area high schools have exceeded their capacities in recent years. The county hasn’t had a new high school since Broadneck was built in 1982.
The new facility, which will be 275,768 square feet, is being constructed on property off Route 424 adjacent to Crofton Middle School.
The redistricting committee will begin to hold meetings in October. The group will submit a recommendation to Superintendent George Arlotto, who will then deliver his own recommendation to the school board in December. The committee will also deliver its recommendation to the board.
School staff will hold community briefings, and the board will conduct public hearings before it adopts a plan in April 2019, AACPS said.
A principal for the new school will be hired by July 2019, AACPS said. That person will form one or more committee to choose a school name, which must be approved by the board, and a mascot and colors, which must be approved by Arlotto.
A separate committee established by the Division of Advanced Studies and Programs will decide the school’s signature program, AACPS said.
The new high school will not be a magnet school. It will feature a “full array of AACPS courses” and the Project Lead the Way engineering program, the school system said.
Whether sports teams will compete on the junior varsity or varsity levels will be determined on a sport-by-sport basis, AACPS, said. No decisions have been made yet.