Baltimore County schools got money for only seven of 29 proposed building projects, as state officials completed the first round of the capital budget process yesterday.
The projects total slightly more than $2 million, less than a third of the amount of state money given to the county this year and only a tenth of what was requested.
The county had asked for $25 million from the state, including $4.8 million for its priority project, the renovation of Towson High School, which already has been pushed aside several times.
Superintendent Stuart Berger intends to appeal the recommendations to the state's Interagency Committee on Public School Construction next week, said the schools' capital planning manager James Kraft. The initial recommendations were made by representatives of the committee.
"Towson opened in 1949, the county's oldest high school, and absolutely needs to be modernized," said Mr. Kraft, who stressed that this week's review is only the first step in a process which will take several months. The $12 million project was dropped from last year's capital budget until school and community leaders appealed to then-County Executive Roger B. Hayden, who inspected the school and committed the county to the renovation.
The county's second and third choices for fiscal 1996 also were passed over in the first round: additions to Perry Hall Middle and Perry Hall High schools, both of which are severely overcrowded, Mr. Kraft said. The middle school is about 200 students over its capacity of 1,248 and the high school has 400 students more than its capacity of 1,407.
"The first three projects are very, very important to us," said Mr. Kraft. "We have ample justification for these additions and for Towson . . . the time has come."
The committee's representatives did recommend money for additions at Owings Mills, Winfield and Woodmoor elementary schools and improvements at Parkville and Randallstown high schools and Sudbrook Magnet Middle School, he said.
They also gave approval for the county to plan a modernization of Catonsville High School, which was built in 1954. No money accompanies planning approval.
There are two more steps to the state capital budget process: next week's appeal hearing and a similar hearing by the Board of Public Works next month.
The county has $6.6 million in state funds to spend on school construction this year.