In Towson, pleas for 5th school

Rodgers Forge Elementary, one of Baltimore County's highest-achieving schools, and the friendly community that surrounds it were a winning combination for Dan Radek when he moved eight years ago into a rowhouse that faces the school's front lawn.

But with his older child, Elizabeth, set to start kindergarten at Rodgers Forge in the fall, Radek has concerns about a school so crowded that more and more children are being taught in portable classrooms.

"A lot of families I know moved here for the school," Radek said. "The teachers are wonderful, and they do care about the children. But eight years ago, there were no trailers. Now there are seven with plans for ... more."

That's why, Radek said, he has joined others throughout Towson, including many businesses, in displaying signs bearing the number 451 - the number of excess students packed into the area's four neighborhood elementary schools. Angry parents have organized to push county officials to provide a new school.

Crowding in schools is often triggered by a wave of new subdivisions in fast-growing suburban counties. Carroll, Harford and other counties around Maryland have felt such strains.

But Towson-area schools face an unusual problem: a generational shift that has brought young families like the Radeks to neighborhoods that were built decades ago.

"Towson is going through a new life cycle," said Mike Ertel, past-president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, an umbrella group representing the area's more than three dozen neighborhoods.

The area's older residents began downsizing or moving into retirement communities about 10 years ago, he said. Meanwhile, most of the replacements have been younger families or young couples starting families, he said. Their children are filling the area's elementary schools - Rodgers Forge, Stoneleigh, Hampton and Riderwood - well beyond their capacity of 1,665.

Parents and school officials see the problem worsening. Projections by the school system show that the number of excess students in Towson-area elementary schools will nearly double in the next decade.

With home values having doubled or tripled in the Towson area during the recent housing boom, many young families are likely to opt for one of the hundreds of housing units planned in apartment and condominium developments near the center of town, Ertel predicted.

"There used to be a general belief that people in condos didn't necessarily have school-age children, that they were older or younger professionals" he said. "But a lot of people are raising families in condos because that's what they can afford."

However, Jeff Long, deputy director of the county planning office, said he doesn't think increased demand for classroom space will be coming from apartments and condominiums. He said planners and developers across the country have found that young professionals or young married couples typically move into these kinds of dwellings but will move soon after having their first child.

Still, people like Ertel say these families are likely to remain in Towson.

"There's an energy," he said. "Towson is a great place to be right now, other than the school problem."

Parents and community activists point to additional factors that contribute to crowding. The state-required switch from half-day to full-day kindergarten effectively doubled the amount of space needed, they say, and the strain of rising gasoline, utility and food costs has limited the ability of some parents to pay for private schools.

County officials have proposed to alleviate the overcrowding by building an addition to the Ridge Ruxton School in Towson, which serves special-education students.

But some area residents say the plan is not a long-term solution. They say the area needs another elementary school.

Cathi Forbes, chairwoman of Towson Families United, a grass-roots group formed this year to push for a solution to the crowding, said the numbers show that the areas could fill a new elementary school today and as many as three in the coming years.

"These numbers we're looking at are astronomical," she said. "But I think it's going to look worse than that."

Forbes, who launched the Web site towsonfamiliesunited.com to keep residents informed about the crowding issue, has complained that County Executive James T. Smith Jr. has been too heavy-handed in opposing a plan to build a school.

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