Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) needs parent and community volunteers to serve on its Elementary School Redistricting Committee. The school system is starting a comprehensive elementary school redistricting process that will create an attendance zone for Elementary School No. 23, which is scheduled to open at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.  

 

Construction of Elementary School No. 23 is currently underway at the school site, located off St. Charles Parkway in White Plains at 5860 St. David Drive (across from the Gleneagles neighborhood). The school will be located within the new Highlands neighborhood development. The 94,000-square foot building is set to open for the 2025-2026 school year with space for 778 students. The cost of the construction project is $45.4 million. 

 

The redistricting committee is charged with creating two alternative plans that will establish new elementary school zones for Elementary School No. 23. Using input from the Board of Education of Charles County redistricting policy (Policy 1900/1910), the redistricting committee will develop two proposals. In addition to the parent and community volunteers, the committee will also include CCPS staff and administrators, and local government officials. 

 

Committee selection, application 

CCPS will select 11 parents to serve on the committee: eight who represent the elementary level; two who represent the middle school level; and one who represents the high school level. The school system will also select three community members for the committee.  

 

Applicants for the committee must agree to fulfill a four-to-five-month commitment of in-person attendance at a weekly meeting. Meetings will be held on Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. at the CCPS Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building located at 5980 Radio Station Road in La Plata. Once the committee has been established, the facilitators will provide a meeting start date and other details with its members. Facilitators for the committee are Steve Andritz, CCPS director of planning and construction, and Jason Tonkins, CCPS director of transportation.  

 

Parents interested in applying should complete the application posted at https://bit.ly/3ZtsYvL. Deadline for parents to apply is 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 5. Parents of students who currently attend schools located in the St. Charles area in neighborhoods near the Elementary School No. 23 site are encouraged to apply. Parent committee members will be announced at the Oct. 10 Board of Education meeting. The school system will use a random electronic process to select parent committee members.   

 

Community members interested in applying should complete the application posted at https://bit.ly/48droCa. Those seeking to apply for one of the three community members vacancies on the committee should be residents in Charles County and not have a child enrolled in any Charles County public school. Deadline for community members to apply is 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 5.  

 

Community committee members will be announced at the Oct. 10 Board of Education meeting. The school system will use a random electronic process to select parent committee members.    

 

All applicants will be notified of their selection status after the Oct. 10 Board of Education meeting.  

 

Work of the committee 

The two proposals will be developed based on criteria established by the Board of Education from a review of data. Input includes, but is not limited to, the geographic area of the school, transportation costs, increasing populations of schools under capacity and decreasing student enrollment in schools over capacity. The redistricting committee will also review data including elementary school enrollments, growth projections, resale of homes, new home construction, geographic maps and other information. 

 

Once the committee has developed its proposals, it will present them to Superintendent of Schools Maria Navarro, Ed.D., who will then propose one recommendation for consideration by the Board of Education. As part of the redistricting process, approval by the Board is sought one year in advance of when a new school opens so CCPS can communicate with families affected by zone changes well in advance. 

 

The Board is set to approve the redistricting by June 2024, and the redistricting will take effect in the fall of 2025.  

 

Questions about redistricting can be sent to redistrict@ccboe.com. CCPS has an elementary school redistricting page on its website at https://www.ccboe.com/parents/redistricting-elementary-school.  

 

Redistricting timeline 

August 2023 

• Aug. 28: Board meeting: Overview of redistricting process presented to Board of Education.  

 

September 2023 

• Redistricting committee member application process opens.  

• Committee to include 11 parent representatives.  
• Committee to include three (3) community member representatives.  

October 2023 

• Redistricting committee members selected through random electronic process.  

• Random process presented to Board of Education at its Oct. 10 meeting.  
• Committee members chosen at random and announced during Oct. 10 Board meeting.  

 

• Redistricting Community Meeting – Oct. 25, 2023, 6 p.m., St. Charles High School. 

• Staff to provide an overview of redistricting process.  
• Meeting will be livestreamed at www.ccboe.com.  

November 2023 

• Redistricting committee begins weekly meetings.  
  • Committee begins to develop two proposals.  

 

December 2023, January 2024 

• Committee meets weekly to develop two proposals.  

 

February 2024 

• Committee finalizes two proposals.  

 

March 2024 

• March 12 Board meeting: Board receives a report on committee recommendations.  

 

April 2024 

• April 2: Redistricting Public Hearing No. 1: 6 p.m., location to be determined.  

• Hearing will be livestreamed at www.ccboe.com.  

May 2024 

• May 1: Redistricting Public Hearing No. 2: 6 p.m., location to be determined.  

• Hearing will be livestreamed at www.ccboe.com.  

• May 21 Board meeting: Superintendent presents redistricting recommendation to the Board.   
• May 22: Public hearing on Superintendent recommendation, 6 p.m., Boardroom.

 

June 2024 

• June 11 Board meeting: Board votes to approve redistricting plan.  

 

August 2025 

• Redistricting takes effect. Students affected by the redistricting move to their newly zoned school starting with the 2025-26 school year.