On Thursday, they got what they asked for -- eight redistricting options that address individual concerns expressed by board members.

"We tweaked each of the options presented to the board on July 8 and then we created three variations of each," Ray Barnes, facilities services executive director for Frederick County Public Schools, said Thursday. "They all balance enrollments is different ways at the elementary, middle and high school levels."

The options are now known as 1, 1A, 1B, 1C and 2, 2A, 2B and 2C. Each variation has specific changes based on concerns expressed by individual neighborhood residents. For example, in Option 1, part of the New Market Elementary School attendance area would be shifted to Twin Ridge Elementary School. In all of the Option 1 variations, the New Market students would stay put. In Option 2, part of the Urbana Middle attendance area shifts to Windsor Knolls Middle. In options 2A, B and C, the area stays at Urbana .

"We think any of these options are viable," Barnes said. "Each has its pros and cons."

Barnes said the latest set of plans was posted to the school system's website around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, and staff members immediately began receiving e-mail from residents.

New school attendance areas are being created in anticipation of the county's 10th high school opening in fall 2010. Oakdale High will open as its own entity after hosting Linganore High's students for two years while a new Linganore is being built.

The redistricting study area includes 21 schools. New feeder patterns for Gov. Thomas Johnson, Linganore , Urbana and Walkersville High schools have to be created to carve out an attendance area for the new Oakdale.

Residents of the study area have been weighing in since December. Options have been drawn up, commented upon and redrawn for much of the last nine months.

Groups, often clad in matching shirts, have crammed meetings to offer input on plans that would, in their opinions, disrupt lives, split communities, and diminish academic and athletic opportunities for their children.

Some Walkersville and Dearbought parents met Thursday night to discuss their concerns. Both options introduced July 8 would move what is being called the Route 26 corridor from Walkersville middle and high schools to Gov. Thomas Johnson middle and high.

Of the six additional proposals released Thursday, only Option 2B will keep the area in the Walkersville feeder pattern. All other plans would send either 34 percent or 66 percent of Walkersville Elementary to Gov. Thomas Johnson middle and high schools.

Parents are concerned that Walkersville High will be left so under capacity that it will lose advanced placement classes and arts opportunities.

"My daughter is in the band, and she is one of just two band students not living in Dearbought," parent Julie Ferguson said Thursday night. "What happens to band, music, drama, the quality of athletics when these students are moved out of Walkersville ?"

Ferguson lives on Main Street in Walkersville . While her daughter is not affected by the redistricting, she believes the quality of her daughter's education will be directly affected.

Walkersville is "the ugly, redheaded stepchild of FCPS," she said. "They only look at us when they have a mistake they need to fix.

"They made a mistake when they built their mega Oakdale and Linganore complexes and now we're going to pay the price."

Amy Pezenosky worries that Walkersville will lose staff members, and that fewer AP classes will be offered.

"They are not going to run an AP physics class for four or five students," she said.

In the first offering of four options, three of them kept Walkersville intact, she said. In the next round, two kept the community together. In the most recent round, seven of eight options split the community.

"Only one option will make us happy, and that's 2B," Ferguson said. "We're going to make our slogan be '2B Left Out of the Options.'"

Asked if subtle and specific changes in each variation wouldn't further serve to pit community against community, Barnes said he and his staff were just providing what the school board requested.

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