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	Photo by Sam Yu Cardboard and paper targets like the one in the foreground were in abundance at the Frederick County Board of Education's public hearing on redistricting at Oakdale High School Wednesday evening. The targets were brought by Spring Ridge residents who want to see their children go to Oakdale Middle School and not Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle School. Spring Ridge residents held up the targets when they felt other community's residents made comments that "targeted" their community or discriminated against their community. Purchase this photo

Factions dressed in red, blue, green and white, representing Spring Ridge, Walkersville , Lake Linganore and Urbana Highlands, respectively, filled the high school auditorium. Residents from Libertytown and Mount Airy , coincidentally or not, dressed in black.

After Ray Barnes, facilities services executive director for Frederick County Public Schools, gave an overview of the process and a brief explanation of each redistricting option on the table, the floor was turned over to residents.

In addition to offering opinions on why one option served a particular community better than others, residents also gave advice to school board members to help them make the best decision.

One speaker told the school board it needed to use just one element in making a decision: Common sense.

Another speaker gave the board instructions to be "emotionally detached" from the process.

"Make a fact-based decision, not an emotion-based decision," he said.

As has been the case throughout the drawn-out process, residents were polite, appreciative of the time and energy spent by board members to get the process this far, and sympathetic to residents in other communities. In most cases, one community getting what it wants means another community doesn't.

Walkersville parent Julie Ferguson congratulated all parents in attendance for advocating for their children, no matter what community they represented or what option they supported.

Most of the comments made through 9 p.m. seemed to center on two options. The Spring Ridge community, which believes it is being discriminated against and is being treated unfairly, supports Option 1A, which will put its students at Oakdale Middle and Oakdale High schools.

Spring Ridge students now attend Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle and High schools. Speaker after speaker told school board members that TJ Middle is the fifth-farthest middle school from the community and that it doesn't make sense to drive past so many other schools to reach their assigned school.

To prove their point, a group of more than 50 Spring Ridge residents walked from their neighborhood to Oakdale Middle School before the hearing. Many continued the walk to Oakdale High, resident Joy Schaefer said, while some drove.

While Spring Ridge residents support Option 1A, many different areas, including Walkersville , Lake Linganore and Green Valley, all support Option 2B.

One woman said that before she bought her house, she researched schools extensively. She said the Linganore schools played a big role in that decision.

"I urge you all to keep us together and vote for 2B," she told the board.

Parents of Twin Ridge Elementary School students have mixed opinions about redistricting options that would shift some of their students from New Market Middle to Windsor Knolls Middle.

One person who spoke on behalf of 30 Twin Ridge families said they are now in favor of sending their children to Windsor Knolls. She said change is inevitable, and that thrusting kids into new social situations is paramount to healthy development.

School board members have scheduled a special worksession for Wednesday, Aug. 19, when they will take Wednesday night's comments under consideration and start the hard analysis of the options before them, board president Jean Smith said.

The board's goal is to make a final decision at its Aug. 26 meeting.