innerharbor

The sanctuary at St. Mark Catholic Church was nearly full for 11 a.m. Mass.A white-robed priest gave a sermon on the recent Sunday morning about a Samaritan woman who met Jesus at a well. Parishioners lined up to receive Communion. And as congregants flooded to their cars afterward, a few paused to share thoughts on an issue that could soon engulf the historic parish in Catonsville.AdvertisementSometime in the next week or so, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office is expected to release its report on the sexual abuse of children and young adults by priests and brothers in the Archdiocese of Baltimore dating back 80 years. Its authors identify 158 men who abused and tortured more than 600 people between the mid-1940s and 2002, and describe the archdiocese’s efforts to protect abusers and silence victims.A Baltimore judge indicated he wanted to release the report — at least in a redacted form — in time for lawmakers to consider it while working on child sex abuse bills during the legislative session that ends April 10. Attorney General Anthony Brown said Tuesday that his office was going through the “500-page report as expeditiously, thoroughly and accurately as possible” before its release.AdvertisementA summary of the report that appeared in a court filing in November said some sites were home to multiple predator priests, sometimes several at once, and that one congregation was assigned 11 over 40 years.Only one parish is known to have been home to nearly that many, according to a list of offender priests the archdiocese keeps on its website: St. Mark’s, with nine.St. Mark Catholic Church in Catonsville was home to multiple predator priests over a 40-year period, according to a list the archdiocese keeps on its website. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)One former member of the parish who is also a victim advocate says he knows of others who worked there — and that he told investigators for the attorney general about them during the office’s four-year probe.That independent investigator, Frank Dingle, has no doubt the parish described in the summary is St. Mark’s, and he believes the count numbered in the attorney general’s report will grow.“It’s not going to stay at 11,” he says.St. Mark’s is not the only institution in the nine-county Baltimore archdiocese to have housed multiple abusers over the decades. A dozen were home to at least five, by the archdiocese’s count. The list includes urban and suburban parishes, high schools and a seminary.All but one of the instances of abuse the archdiocese has on its list occurred before 2002, when church leaders implemented a policy of removing credibly accused priests from ministry. Earlier, they moved suspected or known offenders to other parishes, something the report says the church did regularly during the 20th century.St. Mark Catholic Church in Catonsville was home to multiple predator priests over a 40-year period, according to a list archdiocese keeps on its website. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)Founded in 1888 when Cardinal James Gibbons laid its cornerstone, St. Mark’s has been a mainstay of Catholic life in Catonsville for generations.AdvertisementLongtime parishioners shared after the recent Mass how it feels to know their church was hit so hard — and that the whole matter could reemerge in all its ugliness any day now.“I knew something was ‘off’ about some of those guys, but I didn’t get wind of what until years later,” said Paul Grochmal, 78, a community member for 55 years. “It has left a bitter taste in my mouth. It’s healthy that it’s going to be coming out soon.”St. Mark’s is unique as a parish not just for its quantity of predators, but because its worst known times took place in the 1970s and 1980s, in memory of many parishioners. And their memories run the gamut.Joan McMahon and her late husband, Mortimer, became members four decades ago. At the time, St. Mark’s priests celebrated seven Masses each weekend and the K-8 school had more than 500 students. The McMahons signed on as co-directors of religious education.[ Catholic Church abuse in Maryland: Coverage from The Baltimore Sun ]Now 78 and living in Florida, Joan McMahon says that though they worked with children, they saw no hint that six people now known to have been abusers worked there during the previous decade and three others did during their tenure.The offenders included Monsignor Frederick Duke, pastor between 1971 and 1978; the Rev. David G. Smith, a prolific fundraiser during the 1970s, and the Rev. Edward Heilman, a priest known for his scholarly manner during his time there in the mid-1980s.AdvertisementDuke, who died in 1992, confessed late in life to abusing children earlier in his career. Smith pleaded guilty in 2002 to molesting a teenage boy in the 1970s. Accusations against Heilman surfaced after his death in 1988, and the archdiocese judged them credible.Knowing all that — and that these and five other priest offenders lived and worked at St. Mark’s at various times between 1970 and 1989, sometimes as many as three at a time — leaves McMahon angry and distressed.“I felt like such a jerk after I found out all these men that I worked with were child abusers,” she says. “All I can say is they were specialists. They knew how to hide what they were doing. But I still can’t believe my husband and I worked with them and neither one of us had a clue.”Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore is shown on March 16, 2023. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)Dingle’s experiences were similar. His family joined the parish in 1969, loved it and stayed for 20 years. They knew many priests well enough to invite them home.Dingle, 82, says he never doubted Duke was a holy man, and he recalls one frequent guest celebrant, the late Rev. W. Vincent Bechtel, as a brilliant orator who loved discussing books. While one of Dingle’s relatives felt strongly that there was something sinister about Bechtel, the Dingles felt otherwise and even had him baptize one of their sons.The Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, informed the Baltimore archdiocese in 2018 that Bechtel committed abuse in the 1980s when he worked at Mount St. Joseph High School in Southwest Baltimore — a period that coincides with his time at St. Mark’s.Advertisement“For the most part, I thought these priests who ended up accused were great,” says Dingle. “What I’ve learned is that the people who do this are so good at ingratiating themselves into families and lives, they can go unnoticed for years.”A man in his 60s who was molested at St. Mark’s as a teen spoke with The Baltimore Sun on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be attacked again by relatives and friends, as he was years ago when he notified authorities of the abuse. They told him he was “making a priest’s life difficult.” He said he also suffered at the hands of church officials who vigorously disputed his account.He loved church and was active in youth ministries, he says, until the priest subtly began the abuse, which went on for years. He feared causing a scandal and was so ashamed that he kept the horror to himself for decades.“What teenage boy wants to tell anyone he’s been having sex with a priest?” he says. “What happened at St. Mark’s ruined my faith.”[ Catholic Church abuse: Coverage from The Baltimore Sun ]Dingle, a retired professor, said victims at St. Mark’s began confiding in him the 1990s. He was so chagrined he decided to apply his research skills toward exploring the scale of child abuse in the Maryland Catholic Church.He set out to read every article he could find in news archives that linked any priest, brother, nun or other employee who ever worked in the state to abuse at any time and place.AdvertisementHis criteria differed from those of the archdiocese, which lists 151 offenders who confessed to, were convicted of, or whom it believes have been credibly accused of abusing children in Central and Western Maryland.Dingle’s list includes more than 800, including more than 250 with ties to the archdiocese. Twelve are linked to St. Mark’s.The parish is far from the only institution repeatedly represented on the archdiocese list. Mount St. Joseph High School is known to have employed 11 abusers over its history, including nine during the 1950s. The most recent, Bechtel, left in 1989.St. Mary’s Seminary in North Baltimore, Loyola Blakefield School in Towson and Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in South Baltimore were home to at least seven each; so were St. Patrick and St. Mary’s churches in Cumberland.Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in South Baltimore was home to at least seven predator priests. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)Calvert Hall High School in Towson, Loyola University Maryland (formerly called Loyola College) in North Baltimore, St. Clement Church in Halethorpe, and the now-defunct Cardinal Gibbons High School in Southwest Baltimore were home to at least six apiece.Survivors and their advocates say certain parishes and schools were “dumping grounds.” In some cases, they suggest, church officials may have thought they could better supervise someone there. Other advocates fear a parish could have suffered such priests for different reasons, like having lower status within the archdiocese.AdvertisementChurch officials deny that, arguing the size of some parishes means they’re likely to end up with a greater number of abusers.Reports of abuse spiked in Maryland after 2002, when the archdiocese published the first version of its list. Offenders on the list were spaced out more or less evenly across the decades at most of the sites with high numbers.Christian Kendzierski, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, cited a study by the public John Jay School of Criminal Justice in 2011 that found about 4% of American Catholic priests were child abusers over a 60-year period starting in 1950. Thus, he says, it’s likely that a parish like St. Mark’s, which employed some 200 priests over the 80 years the attorney general investigated, would end up with some eight to 10 over the eight decades.The Morning SunDailyGet your morning news in your e-mail inbox. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com.“There was no strategy that identified parishes as destinations for priests accused of abuse,” Kendzierski wrote in an email. “And the fact that abusive priests were assigned to a parish does not mean they were assigned after being accused of abuse.”Loyola Blakefield School at 500 Chestnut Avenue in Towson. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks and documents predator priests, cites another possibility: priests have some say in where they’re assigned, and abusers might have sought to live together.McKiernan notes St. Mark’s stands in a 10-square-mile portion of Southwest Baltimore and Baltimore County that includes more than 20 parishes. The archdiocese’s list names predator priests who served more than 35 assignments there between the 1960s and late 1990s.AdvertisementThey include the late Rev. Joseph Maskell, a teacher at the former Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore. Maskell is depicted as a serial abuser and possible murderer in the 2017 Netflix docuseries “The Keepers.”“There are so many factors at play that it’s hard to draw meaningful conclusions about what it means without further study,” McKiernan says. “We do know that these ‘clusters’ left many children vulnerable.”It’s essential, Dingle says, to keep those people in mind when the report comes out. He says most people abused as children are still afraid to come forward, but he’s certain they’ll draw courage from seeing offenders’ names in the independent, official report.“I believe there are victims still out there,” he says.

Here’s a roundup of high school varsity action from Thursday, March 30. Broadneck 11, Kent Island 5: The Bruins got three goals from Jackson Shaw to lead the win. Ryan Della, Tanner Boone and Tyler Hicks each scored twice, while Brooks Chatios had a goal and an assist.AdvertisementPark 10, Key 5: Key got two goals from Kasper Kelly and single goals from Reid Chapman, Davis Chapman, James Madison and Edward Bulmer. Christian Dent made five saves. Patterson Mill 20, Bo Manor 0: Taylor Brown needed to make just three saves to earn the shutout. Offensively, Addison Harmel led with five goals. Ava Lopano and Rylie Madsen each had three goals and an assist, while Samantha Chittum finished with two goals and three assists. Riley Crain also scored twice.AdvertisementHarford Tech 15, Elkton 3: The Cobras moved to 3-1 behind five goals each from Sadie Atkinson and Jordan Strang. Atkinson also had a team-high three assists. Lauren Kunes added two goals and Nina Humpf handed out two assists. In goal, Megan Trostle (6) and Annika DeVos (2) combined for eight saves.St. Mary’s 15, Roland Park 5: Megan O’Hare scored five goals, Grace Mitchell had four goals and Camryn Pfundstein had three goals and two assists to lead the visiting Saints (2-4, 2-4 Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference) over the Reds (2-5, 2-4). St. Mary’s led 9-5 in the first half.Notre Dame Prep 10, Gerstell 6: Ava Reed made 11 saves, but the host Falcons (4-5, 0-4 IAAM A Conference) fell to the Blazers (6-1, 5-1). The win was the third straight.Centennial 13, Hammond 2: Kaitlyn McManus scored four goals, while Jane Baldy and Gabi Bieberich each had hat tricks in the win for the Eagles (2-2). Helen Baldy thrived as a facilitator with seven assists, while Claire Whipkey also had two goals and two assists. For Hammond (1-3), Katie Lindenmann and Riley Proctor scored.C. Milton Wright 4, Patterson Mill 1: Brandon Tolson went 3-for-3 with a triple and an RBI to lead the Mustangs (3-1). Thomas Cannavale, Ryan Niedzialkowski and Jon Hanifee also drove in runs. Cole Williams and Paul Kulaga combined for a seven-hitter, with Williams striking out six in 5 ⅓ innings.Varsity HighlightsWeeklyGet the latest high school sports stories, photos and video from around the region.Pikesville 12, Landsdowne 2: Haley Bohrer worked five innings, gave up one hit and struck out eight as the host Panthers beat the Vikings. Bohrer went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Perry Hall 9, Towson 5: After scoring five runs in the top of the first, the Gators held off the Generals, putting the game away with three more runs in the seventh. Rileigh Kitchin had two hits and three RBIs to lead the win. Jenna Neff had a hit and two RBIs. Marin Harris had three hits and an RBI for Towson, who outhit Perry Hall, 12-5. Hereford 17, Kenwood 1: Aly Wegerzyn had four hits and three RBIs to lead the Bulls past the Blue Birds. Alyssa McCaffery added three hits and an RBI. Morgan Ford doubled, singled and drove in three runs, while Taylor Roberts had two hits and two RBIs. AdvertisementMarriotts Ridge 5, Glenelg 0: Rafa Feldman and Felipe Arantes Gabriel earned commanding singles victories 8-2 and 8-0, respectively. The doubles pairings of Colin Wang and Tobi Ijiyemi, Sam Lim and Alex Yang, Tyler Wang and Sai Anuj Chodavarapu each won their matches.Marriotts Ridge 5, Glenelg 0: Charita Sandoze and Stella Lee each won their singles matches handedly 8-1. The doubles pairings of Maria Ottman and Erika Kang, Christina Ottman and Vin Badugu, and Haeli Shah and Sandrine Roh each won their matches.Fallston 7, Patterson Mill 4: Sarah King and Jesse Killian earned singles wins for the Cougars, Kilian winning the second boys singles match in a third-set tiebreaker. Doubles wins came from the teams of Ryan Blair and Colby Resch, Kael Sturgis and Gordo Lefkowitz, Camryn Barrett and Mehagn Perez, and Jack Price and Lindsey Dettloff, all in straight sets. Wins for the Huskies came from Jack Baker, Victor Wallace and Alexa Benedict in singles play. Kylee Connors and Jessica Kim won the first girls doubles match. To submit scores and stats, email mdscores@baltsun.com with a full box score, including first and last names of the players.

Negotiations over a proposed $62.5 billion state budget plan briefly soured Thursday when House lawmakers said they were digging in their heels to support Gov. Wes Moore’s plan to decrease taxpayer spending on private schools.The hang-up — over whether to cut $2 million from a $10 million scholarship program that sends students from families with low incomes to private and parochial schools — comes as lawmakers face deadlines to pass the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.AdvertisementMoore, a Democrat who entered office in January, has argued public money should go to public schools.Democrats who control both the House and Senate have agreed with each other and the governor on most issues this legislative session. But when it comes to the BOOST (Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today) program, the House has stuck by the governor, while the Senate wants to keep BOOST fully funded.Advertisement“We are moving and sticking with the governor’s position on this,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes said during a meeting Thursday in Annapolis. Barnes is a Democrat who represents parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties.House and Senate negotiators began meeting earlier this week to reach compromises on disagreements remaining between the chambers.Thursday’s meeting was noted on the General Assembly’s online schedule. But it began an hour late and was only attended by House members. Barnes said both sides had agreed to meet and his chamber has “operated in good faith.”Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Guy Guzzone of Howard County said later they had never agreed on a time to meet and negotiations as a whole have continued behind the scenes “in good faith.”“We haven’t come to a resolution yet,” Guzzone said. “So to me, in my mind, it didn’t make sense to bring the whole committee in.”Both Barnes and Guzzone described the BOOST funding as the sticking point in ongoing negotiations.Senate President Bill Ferguson has been one of the most prominent Democrats arguing to keep the funding, saying it’s a small investment compared to the more than $8 billion state spending on public schools, which lawmakers are also increasing this year. He has said constituents in his South Baltimore district have benefited from the program.Maryland Policy & PoliticsWeeklyKeep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials.In a budget amendment Barnes proposed Thursday, the $2 million in question would instead be used to pay coordinators that help school districts carry out the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the multiyear plan to remake the state’s education system.AdvertisementTotal funding for the Blueprint is another disagreement between the House and the Senate. While the Senate proposed boosting the Blueprint fund by $800 million in the next budget, the House originally proposed $900 million.Barnes said Thursday the House was offering another amendment to bring that total up to $1 billion.“We want every person in this state to have a school that meets their needs, that is safe, that is accommodating,” House Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Stephanie Smith, a Baltimore Democrat, said during the meeting Thursday. “We don’t get closer to that [by] not dedicating public dollars to public education.”Members from both chambers who have been part of the budget negotiations said they were looking forward to continuing the discussion in the coming days.While the General Assembly technically faces a deadline Monday to pass the budget, negotiations can continue until April 10, when they are required to pass the spending plan. That’s the last day of the annual 90-day legislative session.“Getting reasonable people together to come to a conclusion on something that’s very heartfelt is a challenging thing,” Guzzone said. “I firmly believe we’ll get there. But we’re not there today.”

Hampton Elementary School parents have asked the Baltimore County Board of Education to relieve their overcrowded classrooms for months.Teachers host class sizes well beyond state-recommended limits. The gymnasium cannot hold all students for assemblies. Lunch now spans three hours to fit each student into the cafeteria.AdvertisementBy Baltimore County school system’s count, the Timonium school reached 112% capacity in September. Hampton Elementary parents say the current percentage is even higher. Nearly a third of the system’s schools are at or over capacity, according to August data.Baltimore County Public Schools said it would send four trailers, portable classrooms that require students to leave the main school building, to Hampton next fall to alleviate overcrowding.Advertisement“This is not a solution but a Band-Aid,” said Hampton Elementary PTA President Julie Culotta at the Feb. 28 board of education meeting. “BCPS must plan better.”Some parents believe the school system’s reaction to overcrowding at their child’s schools lacks the forethought necessary to solve issues long-term. BCPS adds portable buildings and conducts boundary studies to mitigate large classroom sizes and overwhelmed buildings, but the fixes historically have left schools over capacity or failed to consider future overcrowding. As the frequent boundary studies for redistricting redraw school zones, communities are split and some students must switch schools multiple times.A 2020 report from the Baltimore County Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance Task Force found several issues with how BCPS addresses overcrowding. The school system had “insufficient” methods of projecting future enrollment and, as allowed by law, used 115% as the school overcapacity threshold, a benchmark higher than other Maryland school districts.Baltimore County also continues to grant exceptions to allow development to proceed in overcrowded school districts and doesn’t collaborate with the school system to mitigate the impacts, the reports said.In 2019, the county council passed a law to impose impact fees on developers to help fund additional or expanded public facilities such as schools, but that revenue wasn’t expected to start coming in until 2023. There are questions about how much money the fees will generate because the council created so many exemptions from the fee for developers.BCPS has conducted boundary studies using Ohio-based consultant Cropper GIS since 2005, according to CEO Matthew Cropper. His company guides the boundary study committee — a team of educators, parents and community members — through the process of recommending a redistricting map to the board of education, which then votes on the final plan.Yet the committee must balance overcrowding concerns and pleas from parents who don’t want their children to change schools.Advertisement“We want to hear the community,” Cropper said. “We want to make as many people happy as possible, but the most important task is doing our job.”BCPS currently has three ongoing boundary studies, focused on northeast area elementary schools, Deer Park Middle Magnet School and central and northeast area middle schools. Community members have requested boundary studies elsewhere, such as at Hampton Elementary.Parents gather outside Hampton Elementary School in Timonium at the end of the school day to pick up their children. Julie Culotta, Hampton PTA president, and other parents want BCPS to conduct an emergency boundary study because of the severe overcrowding. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)The school participated in a boundary study in 2020 to help relieve overcrowding at Pleasant Plains Elementary nearby in Towson. The school board approved a redistricting plan that kept Pleasant Plains over capacity, albeit by fewer students, and made Hampton Elementary, which was only at 86% capacity, into an over-capacity school at 101%.A 2011 boundary study for Hampton Elementary prompted the school system to renovate the school to increase capacity. The school, which had 200 students above the school’s capacity of 300, received 24 new classrooms; however, the cafeteria, bathrooms and gymnasium were not included in the update, Culotta said at the Feb. 28 board meeting.“It’s extremely disappointing that poor planning has led us back to this place,” she told the board.In a Facebook group for one of BCPS’ boundary studies, school board member Julie Henn said the system does have a long-term solution to overcrowding, the Multi-Year Improvement Plan for All Schools, published in 2021. The 15-year plan aims to eliminate over-capacity schools by 2026 through school additions and redistricting. She noted that deviations from the plan would not guarantee project funding.AdvertisementThe board of education also briefly considered using a redeveloped Middle River quarry, known as the LaFarge property, for a school as recommended by the County Council. During a board meeting Jan. 24, Henn amended the system’s county capital budget request, substituting a proposed high school replacement on the site for a more vague description to allow other possibilities.Pradeep “Pete” Dixit, executive director of BCPS facilities management and strategic planning, said such action would delay the process of developing a new school in the area, but the board, nonetheless, voted to approve Henn’s amendment. Weeks later, a BCPS report on the LaFarge site said the property isn’t big enough for a high school, only an elementary school.The boundary study for Deer Park Middle Magnet School is in its last stages.At a March 1 public hearing for the proposed redistricting map, Deer Park Middle teacher Sherie Williams said the one-floor school has seven trailers, and she worried that the boundary study hadn’t considered the future of the school’s enrollment given the number of nearby development projects.“Where are those kids gonna go in the next five to 10 years?” Williams asked.The school’s overcrowding, she said, has led to loss of staff and even staff injuries in the crowded hallways. Last year’s school principal, who has since left, got hurt breaking up a fight, Williams said.AdvertisementBCPS also is conducting a broad boundary study for middle schools in its central and northeast areas. Some parents, worried their kinds may be separated from friends, have expressed dissatisfaction with the study’s large scope.The study is looking at building a new middle school for the northeast area and expanding capacity at Pine Grove Middle School in the central area. The boundary study committee considered several redistricting maps, which would disrupt how people get to school and won’t prevent overcrowding for more than a few years, according to committee members.At boundary study committee meetings, members got about one hour to review new map options alongside previous ones. The committee chose four maps to present to the public at two boundary study town halls, where the community had even less time to review the maps.On Wednesday, the committee selected a map as its recommendation for the school board, which will consider it on May 2. Presented to the public for the first time on Wednesday night, this map option was not shown during the community town halls but created after the committee looked through public feedback. The map looks to impact 1,625 students, the second-lowest number of the options.AdvertisementParents said the process has felt disorganized and chaotic.Rossville Elementary School parent Jessica Krasnick, who said she participated in a past BCPS boundary study, said the school district should have included elementary school parents on the committee. The committee includes middle school parents whose children mostly won’t be affected by the study by the time lines are redrawn, Krasnick said.Cropper GIS said the central and northeast study looks to maintain diversity in the student body and efficiently use school capacity above all else. Long-term enrollment capacity and maintaining neighborhoods are secondary priorities. Geographic considerations rank at the bottom of the priority list, meaning some parents would have to bring their children to schools farther away.“We basically would have to drive past Perry Hall Middle School an extra 10 minutes to get to Pine Grove Middle School,” said Buddy Redmer, a Gunpowder Elementary School parent, about two of the four map options presented at the town halls.Hampton PTA President Julie Culotta and her 4-year old daughter Grace, third from left, meet her three older children, from left, Camden, 6; Cooper, 9; and Addie, 11, at Hampton Elementary School in Timonium. (Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun)AdvertisementLindsay Rothstein, a Mays Chapel Elementary School parent, said the boundary study process seems good in terms of how it’s being explained to the public, but she is distrustful of the final decision. Her distrust grew after she spoke with Cropper, whom she recalls saying that the map option that affects the most number of students is the one that best meets the boundary study priorities.“It was clear this man did not care at all about real families and this was just another boundary study for him moving lines around a paper,” Rothstein wrote in an email the day after the second town hall.Committee member Keith Jeffries said he read the boundary study’s online survey feedback during his spare time, including breaks from his teaching position at Parkville Middle School, one of the middle schools included in the study. He said balancing community wants and overcrowding needs is the “toughest part” of the process.Jeffries said one of his physical education classes hosts 38 students and smaller class sizes would be better.“Unfortunately, there are going to be plenty of people unhappy about it,” Jeffries said. “Minimizing those class sizes, it’s a win-win for everyone.”Parents of students at Hampton Elementary School are frustrated about overcrowding at the school. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)Jeffries said he still wants to do his best to keep communities together.AdvertisementThe Evening SunDailyGet your evening news in your e-mail inbox. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com.A public hearing will be held May 17 before the board votes on the study June 13.School board member Maggie Litz Domanowski asked the board to consider an emergency boundary study for Hampden Elementary. She also asked the board to find long-term solutions that aren’t conducting frequent boundary studies.At the school board’s Tuesday meeting, Superintendent Darryl L. Williams acknowledged community members’ pleas for overcrowding relief. He said that the school had 802 students as of March 22, which means it’s at 120% capacity. Williams said short-term and long-term solutions have been identified and that details will be provided soon. He said student projections for the next five years require a solution beyond redistricting.Del. Michele Guyton spoke during public comment following Williams’ announcement, sharing her concern and the concerns of her constituents surrounding how BCPS handles overcrowding. She said it “might be appropriate” for the board to work with the next superintendent on this issue because Williams plans to leave the district this summer.AdvertisementFor the recordA previous version of this article incorrectly attributed information about Baltimore County development fee exceptions to the Baltimore County Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance Task Force's report. The Sun regrets the error.

Four of Maryland’s five most populous jurisdictions — including Baltimore City and Baltimore County — lost population over the past year, according to annual estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday.Though 18 of Maryland’s 24 counties increased in population, five grew by less than a quarter percent, contributing to the state’s overall population decline. The drop could lead state agencies to adjust previous predictions that Maryland, with a population of 6.16 million, would reach 6.24 million people by 2025.AdvertisementThe census’ annual population estimates are used by local government agencies to create zoning maps, apply for federal funding, and make policy decisions, among other purposes.“When we get these markers, for example, these annual population estimates, it does serve as a check,” said Shawn Kimberly, a principal planner for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which analyzes data for Baltimore and regional jurisdictions for transportation planning.Advertisement“Each year [local jurisdictions] are allowed an opportunity to make adjustments to their forecasts, and I suspect when we review this year’s population estimates that some of them might take that into consideration,” he said.The Maryland Department of Planning’s estimate that Maryland’s population will reach 6.24 million by 2025 is based on historical data and trends from previous census data, said David Buck, a spokesperson.“While there was a 7% increase in overall Maryland population between 2010 and 2020, there is not enough data yet to revise any future predictions,” Buck said in a statement. “If the data continues trending in specific directions, it may be adjusted.”Maryland lost nearly 10,000 people from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022, according to census data. The data tracks both natural population change from births and deaths and migration changes from people moving domestically and internationally. Domestic migration, the difference between the number of people moving to a county from somewhere else in the United States and the number leaving that county for another, is the driving force of the population loss.Nationally many larger counties that lost people early in the coronavirus pandemic, and smaller counties that gained residents, have shifted back toward their pre-pandemic rates. But Montgomery, Prince George’s and Baltimore counties, along with Baltimore City, each posted declines similar to a year ago.International migration, the difference between the number of people moving to a county from another country and the number leaving that county for abroad, has rebounded to pre-pandemic rates in Maryland. But the gain is not enough to offset the number of people moving domestically. The data does not track where the people are going, or explain why people are moving out of Maryland.“The big question that a lot of planning agencies and local governments are trying to figure out is are the blips we saw in the pandemic going to self-correct, or are they the new normal?” said Mike Kelly, Baltimore Metropolitan Council’s executive director. “This report is probably one of the early reports that’s going to let us know.”Subsequent census reports are going to be “very important to let us know what the lasting effects of the pandemic are,” Kelly said.AdvertisementBut as of Thursday, it’s “too early to determine whether the decline is a statistical trend, a direct result of the COVID pandemic, or some combination of other factors,” Buck said.Coming down from the height of the pandemic, deaths declined in all but four counties (Allegany, Caroline, Somerset and Washington) and births increased in all but five counties (Wicomico, Cecil, Charles, Kent and Queen Anne’s).Despite the decline in deaths, 11 of 24 Maryland jurisdictions had more deaths than births. A majority of counties in the United States (74%) had more deaths than births. Over 2021 in Maryland, births rose 3% to 69,130 but births were still 2% lower than 2018 to 2019, a year that had 70,800 babies. The Baltimore region had 2% fewer births over 2021 compared with 2018 to 2019.Maryland’s six biggest jurisdictions — which, in addition to the four that lost population, include Anne Arundel County, which grew 0.2%, and Howard County, which was essentially flat — collectively lost 56,000 residents from 2021 to 2022. Those counties lost 37,000 residents the previous year.Similarly sized national peers were more likely to grow from migration. Of about 175 counties with populations between 335,000 and 1 million people, about 60% gained population in 2022. Collectively, their populations grew by about half a percent, up from about a third a percent in 2021, according to census data.Breaking News AlertsAs it happensBe informed of breaking news as it happens and notified about other don't-miss content with our free news alerts.Baltimore City’s population declined by 7,000 people or 1.2%, the biggest percentage drop in the state. The city’s estimated population is 569,930, a level last seen during a period of rapid growth during the 1910s. A 1% drop in Prince George’s County, the state’s second-most populous jurisdiction after Montgomery County, is the second biggest percentage loss.AdvertisementA Baltimore City spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.Baltimore County lost nearly 4,500 people, a 0.5% population decline. Erica Palmisano, a Baltimore County spokesperson, said in a statement the county “remains a thriving, vibrant, and rapidly diversifying community which has grown significantly in recent decades and we could not be more bullish about our continued potential in the years ahead.”The Eastern Shore, however, is growing at a faster rate than it did from 2010 to 2020. Queen Anne’s County gained 811 people, or 1.6% of its population of 51,700, the second-largest percentage increase behind Frederick County, which has rapidly grown over the past decade. Growth in both Frederick and Queen Anne’s counties is driven by domestic migration.St. Mary’s County in Southern Maryland and Caroline County on the Upper Eastern Shore were the only two other Maryland jurisdictions that gained residents from domestic migration.Among the two less-populated Baltimore jurisdictions, Carroll County grew 0.6%, (1,097 people) or the state’s sixth biggest gain, and Harford County grew 0.2% (575 people).Southern Maryland’s previous growth has slowed while Western Maryland’s population has stayed relatively stable. The small Western Maryland counties of Allegany and Garrett also lost population over the past year. Both have been losing population for years.