Montgomery County parents voice concerns over redistricting

Several hundred people turned out tonight as Montgomery County held its latest school boundary analysis meeting. 

In the past 20 years, Montgomery County has seen an increase of more than 30,000 students.

Schools are overcrowded and busses are packed, but as officials try to keep up there are many concerns over redistricting. 

The county brought in a consulting firm to take a sweeping look at school boundaries and how neigborhoods are broken up into clusters. 

They provided pages of facts, making it clear they are simply collecting information and getting community feedback. The school system will apparently use this information when making decisions about upcoming boundary changes. 

Several attendees told Fox 5 they were frustrated more time wasn’t devoted to a Q and A session. 

There are a lot of concerns, including fears that efforts to create more racial and socio-economic diversity within schools will lead to long travel times for students and kids being bussed to different zip codes.

There is also a sense of unease about communities being broken up and property values decreasing.  

This will effect a lot of people. 

There are as many as five possible boundary changes coming over the next six years due to growth across the county. 

Meantime, one group of parents filed an appeal to the Maryland State Board of Education on Dec. 26 protesting the changes approved for the Seneca Valley High School cluster in

November, calling them unlawful. The appeal states  students are being ripped from their already diverse schools for “unjustified reasons.”

The school system says it cannot comment on an ongoing appeal.