Rezoning changes at 9 Baltimore County elementary schools will come down to neighborhoods, streets

The school staff and parents drawing new attendance boundaries for elementary schools in Northwest Baltimore County are working through fine details.

Wednesday night at Milford Mill Academy, a committee from the impacted schools met to review seven drafts of maps . Most have minor differences across blocks and neighborhoods. The new boundaries are expected to start in the 2026-27 school year.

The rezoning concerns nine elementary schools — Church Lane, Deer Park, Hernwood, Lyons Mill, New Town, Randallstown, Scotts Branch, Winand and Woodholme.

Geographically, Hernwood Elementary School in the west and Woodholme in the northeast are the most isolated elementary schools in the study area.

Around Owings Mills in the north of the study area, New Town, Lyons Mill and Deer Park elementary schools are situated in a triangle about a mile apart.

James Cooper, a consultant from Cropper GIS who the district hired to facilitate the process, said enrollment projections include four approved developments around New Town, Lyons Mill and Woodholme that would add around 70 elementary school students out of 700 units.

“You maybe don’t want to fill a school too much knowing there is development in an attendance area,” Cooper said.

Around Randallstown, Pikesville and Windsor Mill in the south of the study area, Randallstown, Church Lane, Winfield, Winland and Scotts Branch elementaries are also clustered a few miles apart.

A new Deer Park Elementary building is expected to open next September, and a new Scotts Branch Elementary is planned to open in September 2026.

If the boundaries stay the same, the new Deer Park building would be under capacity by 281 students and Church Lane would be under capacity by 92 students. Meanwhile, New Town would be over capacity by 178 students and Woodholme would be over capacity by 112 students, according to district data.

Committee members expressed a desire to let as many kids walk to school as possible to save commute time for sleeping . School representatives also expressed concerns that shifting hundreds of kids away from one school could drastically shift demographics and suddenly disqualify a school from existing federal benefits such as Title IX.

Last month, the committee reviewed four potential maps. The three new options introduced Wednesday night by Cooper were all minor alterations on the third option, which received the most attention at a meeting last month .

The options each impact between about 450 and 570 students, and some would result in single elementary schools feeding into multiple middle schools.

Option five would extend Lyons Mill’s zone south within blocks of Deer Park and would result in five elementary schools feeding into multiple middle schools.

Another option would send students from both Winand to Church Lane and from Church Lane to Winand. Students living off Liberty Road within blocks of Randallstown Elementary could also be rezoned for Church Lane in six of the seven options.

The district also says it plans to relocate programs for 3- and 4-year-olds currently at Campfield Early Learning Center , which the school board voted last year to close, to local elementary schools.

The committee, which has 10 principals, 10 teachers or other staff representatives and 20 parents, will meet again Oct. 23 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Milford Mill Academy cafeteria. The school board will vote on the final map in March.