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With the second phase of boundary changes looming for schools in central and northern Prince George's County, parents asked school officials Oct. 27 to implement stricter boundary enforcement to discourage parents from neighboring jurisdictions from sending their children to the county's already overcrowded schools.

"If there is no enforcement of these boundaries, the county will be at square one," Hope Porter of Bowie told school officials at the final boundary forum at Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro.

The meeting was the last of four community forums held in October by county Superintendent William Hite Jr. as he prepares to make his boundary change recommendations to the school board in December. Changes are being considered to level out underenrolled and overcrowded schools.

More than 90 elementary and middle schools are up for review this year, and 44 of those schools are over-capacity.

While enrollment is a leading factor for consolidation, a school's academic performance on state assessments, its facility conditions and specialty programs are also considered in the review.

A boundary review last year of the southern portion of the county found 10,000 unused seats in nearly 70 south county schools. As a result, eight schools in Temple Hills, Suitland, Landover and District Heights were closed, and the students were transferred to neighboring schools.

About 30 people attended the meeting Oct. 27, and many applauded Porter, who said that if new boundaries are not enforced by school officials, efforts to prevent overcrowding will not be effective.

Porter, a mother of five, said she has come across students coming from outside of the county or state to attend Prince George's schools. She refers to the students as "boundary jumpers."

Hohndel Jones-Brown, county director of pupil accounting and school boundaries, agreed that boundary-jumping is a persistent problem in the county and said school officials will look for ways to tighten enforcement as the boundary assessment continues.

Currently, parents are required to show proof or their residency, such as a deed or lease to their home, Jones-Brown said.

There are also some cases where residency is unclear or cannot be established, such as homelessness or when students are living with extended family or friends, he said, adding that teachers and parents should be on-guard for students commuting from neighboring counties.

"A school is the first line of defense" for detection, he said, adding that fraudulent residency is harder to detect at the administrative level.

However, former parent liaison Marilyn Salmon said while the problem is easy to detect at the school level, it is harder to resolve.

Throughout her two years at Upper Marlboro's Melwood Elementary School, Salmon said she saw many cars with Washington, D.C., and Virginia license plates dropping students off at the overcrowded elementary school.

"Our children are being pushed to another school," said Salmon, a Fort Washington resident who has a grandson at the school.

Melwood is currently at 115 percent capacity, with 775 students in a school built for 671 students, according to Sept. 30 enrollment numbers.

Salmon said during her tenure, she would mail fliers to parents and receive many of the envelopes back, stamped with "address unknown."

"We have names, but no one asks us for them," Salmon told school officials.