FY 2022 Educational Facilities Master Plan

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COMMUNITY ANALYSIS FINDINGS

The American Planning Association (APA) 1 as well as the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) encourages coordination among community planners and public school officials regarding future plans which ultimately affect the utilization and capacity of schools. It is critically important to integrate school planning with community planning regarding locating new or addressing existing public schools, which are significant to the vitality of our local community. Schools are by nature a community centered place which plays an important part in community development. Within Wicomico County coordination between the planning department and the public school system is becoming more essential if public schools are to adequately support the needs of specific school attendance areas. The challenge that the Wicomico County Public School system (WCPS) faces is the ability to integrate sound school planning strategies with the realities of our particular geographic location. It is imperative that our public schools be an integral part of the planning efforts by both the county and the local municipalities. In addition, WCPS looks forward to and appreciates increased inter-jurisdictional coordination between Wicomico County, the City of Salisbury, and the seven (7) local municipalities to further enhance all local planning efforts. WCPS welcomes the opportunity to provide information to both the county and municipalities through our Educational Facilities Master Plan (EFMP) at a minimum. Our ability to prepare for anticipated growth or shifts in school attendance areas is directly related to the information available regarding local community planning in our geographic area. We need to address projected growth in our surrounding communities or we will end up reacting to wherever it happens and run the risk of not being in a position to provide adequate facilities. This is a main area of concern regarding existing and future schools within Wicomico County. Some of the information or indicators that are available for use regarding educational facility planning are documented subdivision activity, census demographic indicators, public utility plans and designated growth areas. SUBDIVISION ACTIVITY The majority of the data presented within this section represents the development activity historically tracked by the Wicomico County Planning & Zoning Department. It is important to note, this data does not include subdivision activity within the City of Salisbury and the seven (7) local municipalities. WCPS has reached out and these local municipalities do not track subdivision activity in a quantifiable manner to analyze. Moreover, an approved subdivision does not quantitatively translate to a mechanism for anticipating future enrollments or capacity. It is one of the myriad of metrics to investigate in an effort to better obtain an understanding between the correlation of new growth and development and the associated impact on enrollments (existing and projections). Currently there is not a mechanism in place requiring the local municipalities to report their subdivision activity. WCPS is working with the largest local municipality, the City of Salisbury to develop a reporting process for their subdivision activity and welcomes receipt of information about subdivision activity and building permit data for new residential construction shared by other local municipalities. This data is incorporated into our planning efforts as available.

1 See the APA’s website for more information: https://www.planning.org/

Wicomico County Public Schools Educational Facilities Master Plan FY 2022

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