GROWTH AREAS While the concept of “Smart Growth” is valuable for overall community development, its impact on school development is somewhat restrictive for WCPS in relation to current local growth patterns. Smart Growth encourages development within designated growth areas that are supported by water and sewer infrastructure. It also prioritizes the renovation of existing schools in existing neighborhoods over new schools. Of the twenty four (24) public school facilities located in Wicomico County, seven (7) are operating “over” capacity. This does not include our Wicomico Early Learning Center (WELC) or Choices (Alternative Learning Center). These specific programs operate in separate facilities. WCPS schools can be viewed as serving specific geographic areas or county designated quadrants. Although these quadrants are not specifically representative of actual attendance areas, since some of our tracks cross over these geographic areas, they are a starting point to see how WCPS capacity relates to these geographic locations (see Figure 7 – red indicates over capacity, green indicates at capacity and black indicates under capacity). Looking at these quadrants in more detail it is apparent that all quadrants have at least 17% of their schools “over” capacity (See Figure 7). The majority of WCPS schools are located within a Priority Funding Area (PFA). Priority Funding Areas are locations where the State and local governments want to target their efforts to encourage and support economic development and new growth. This becomes even more critical due to recent changes the Administration of the Public School Construction Program specifically noting that “Location of a new school or a replacement school that adds capacity be within a Priority Funding Area”. Also required is a Priority Funding Area review by the Maryland Department of Planning. N. Salisbury ES Delmar ES W. Salisbury ES Chipman ES Salisbury MS Pittsville ES & MS E. Salisbury ES Beaver Run ES Glen Ave ES Parkside HS Willards ES Prince Street ES Pinehurst ES Fruitland Interm. Fruitland Primary Wicomico MS Wicomico HS Westside Interm. Pemberton ES Westside Primary Bennett MS J.M. Bennett HS Mardela MS & HS Northwestern ES 20% 40% 40% 29% 29% 43% 67% 17% 17% 17% 33% 50% Figure 7 121
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