Frederick County’s Board of Education revealed the new architectural designs for the new elementary school that will be added to the community by 2022, taking its new home in the neighborhood of Hamptons West in Lake Linganore.

A new elementary school for the Oakdale district would not only relieve the overcrowding problem at Deer Crossing Elementary, but would provide a focal point to the neighborhood. In the counties building plans, a new fire station will be added to the community as well.

The Board of Education posted a survey to decide a name for the school. For roughly a week, residents could give their input on what the new school should be named. The names that are in the running will be posted to Frederick County Public School’s website on May 6.

There has been controversy about naming schools after important figures and historical events, due to sensitivity about slave ownership. There are currently 37 elementary schools and only one of them is named after a person, which is Abraham Lincoln.

Recently, The Frederick News Post published an opinion article about renaming Governor Thomas Johnson High school after the author raised concern about the Governor’s controversial past with slave ownership.

Most of the elementary schools in this area are named after the community they are in or the towns that surround them. This makes the choice obvious. The name should be Hamptons Elementary School, or Boyers Mill Elementary, as the location of the school is about 1,300 feet west of Boyers Mill Road. As for their mascot, being that the school is in an area surrounded by water, the mascot could be a heron or a frog.

Surrounding elementary schools chose their mascots based on the name of their school. Oakdale Elementary school is The Oakdale Owls, Deercrossing is the Deercrossing Deers and so are most other elementary schools in Frederick County.

Deer Crossing has had a long standing overcrowding problem, and building a new elementary school will greatly relieve overcrowding as the school currently has 827 students and are enrolling new students every week. Deer Crossing Elementary supports all of the villages in Lake Linganore, Boyer’s Mill Road, and Yeagertown Road.

Mrs. Heather Hobbs Michael, current principal of Deer Crossing Elementary says, “We are incredibly excited for our students to have the opportunity to attend a school that will not be over capacity. Our students, staff and families work hard to accommodate a student body of over 800 children.”

Parents are closely monitoring the LOU (Linganore, Oakdale, Urbana) redistricting plans through FCPS websites and their Find Out First program.