Severna Park School Parents To Address Budget

Severna Park parents hoping to protect funding for a new high school are expected to make their point at the Anne Arundel County Council hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday  at the Arundel Center in Annapolis.

About 10  families are attending the meeting, said Kathy Bain, an elementary school parent. Bain, along with several parent groups, is trying to rally families from the  feeder schools to support local school funding in the fiscal year 2013 budget.

Severna Park neighborhoods, such as Stewart's Landing, are also mobilizing families to attend the hearing.

There are three speakers signed up for Wednesday's hearing and next Monday night's county council meeting, Bain said.

"We want to thank the council and the majority of members supporting the high school for stepping back and seeing the big picture—that we need a new school," she said.

Bain said that Severna Park has been patient in waiting to have the community's school needs addressed.

"The County Council made a decision years ago to have a policy that every budget year a high school should be in the works," Bain said. "We are not jumping the queue, just asking to keep our place.

Bain and parent Debbie Young, together with several area parent organizations, launched an "

The campiagn's  asks the c to keep the replacement of the high school at the top of the fiscal year 2013 budget priority list. So far, the petition has 1,000 signatures, Bain said.

For more information on the county budget, visit . Here are the upcoming meetings for the Anne Arundel County Board of Education - fiscal year 2013 Operating and Capital Budget: 

• Wednesday, May 9 - 7 p.m. - County Council - Public Hearing at the Arundel Center in Annapolis.
• Monday, May 14 - 7 p.m. - County Council - Public Hearing at Old Mill High School.
• Wednesday, June 20 - 10 a.m. - Board of Education - fiscal year 2013 Operating & Capital Budget Adoption.

CORRECTION: Pertaining to the high school, the word replacement should have been used to describe the work, not modernization. The dollar amount was removed and a PDF on the Feasibility Study was added to this post.