New Monarch Academy Gives Laurel Parents Relief from Overcrowding

Construction on Anne Arundel County's second Monarch Global Academy is underway in Laurel, after a groundbreaking ceremony Monday.

Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Mamie J. Perkins and County Executive Laura Neuman both helped dig up the first piles of dirt at the site of the new school, located near the western tip of Anne Arundel County, near Brock Bridge Elementary. 

When completed in 2014, the public contract school will give parents in the Laurel area an additional option for where to send their elementary-age children. 

The school is expected to alleviate overcrowding at three nearby elementary schools—Brock Bridge, Jessup and Maryland City.

The school's location was long a subject of discussion during school board hearings throughout the past year, but the Laurel area was always the target, said school system spokesman Bob Mosier.

The Monarch Academy also has a charter school in Glen Burnie, which opened in 2009. The contract school in Laurel will be the second in the county, with another charter school still in the planning stage, likely to be built in the central area of the county, Mosier said.