A consultant studying population trends in Owings Mills, Randallstown and other areas of northwest Baltimore County will recommend the construction of at least one elementary school to avoid severe classroom crowding.
In a study to be released at a school board meeting Monday, DeJong & Associates predicts that the region's elementary schools will be almost 1,200 pupils over capacity by 2010 and redistricting won't solve the problem.
"We came to do a boundary recommendation and realized there is no boundary recommendation that can fix the problem, except in the short, short term," said Carolyn Staskiewicz, the consultant's project manager.
She suggested the construction of two elementary schools, if possible.
The Dublin, Ohio, consultant gave a sneak preview of its findings to the school board Tuesday and members appeared receptive to a new school. "I'm convinced," said John A. Hayden III, a board member.
But the school board can't authorize funding for new school construction; that is up to the county and state governments.
County Executive-elect James T. Smith said he would examine DeJong's study.
"We have fiscal realities," he said. "But if, in fact, there is validity to the consultant's recommendations, I would certainly support getting this started now, even if we can't support construction and the bulk of expenses until down the road."
Smith said he would consider floating bonds to pay for new school construction.
The school system owns two properties in the northwest area. Staskiewicz said a 20-acre site on Wilson Lane, just north of the Woodholme Country Club in Pikesville, was preferable. School officials dismissed the other site, 20 acres near Randallstown High School, as being too heavily wooded.
The consultant's recommendations, which the school board will study, should come as no surprise to residents of fast-growing communities in the county's northwest.
"When you live in a community, and you see [the growth] every day, the problem is very obvious," said Jacqueline Parham of New Town, who called it "essential, critical" that a new school be built as soon as possible.
Parham's twin daughters attend New Town Elementary School, which opened last year more than 200 pupils above its capacity of 706. In September, Superintendent Joe A. Hairston took the unusual step of halting new enrollment at the school, which exceeds its capacity by more than 275 pupils.
It was the crowding at New Town Elementary that prompted the school system to hire DeJong, which found that, at best, redistricting would redistribute 500 pupils among eight elementary schools for short-term relief.
Kelli P. Nelson, chairwoman of a coalition of concerned parents from the area, urged the school board to launch a campaign for the money. "This is very political, and we need to be educating our newly elected officials," she said.
Michael Franklin, a Randallstown parent who is president of the PTA Council of Baltimore County, said the need for at least one new school was so great that the county should pay if the state will not.
"The county knew growth was coming. This wasn't a surprise to them. We never tell a developer no in Baltimore County," he said.
More than 7,000 homes are planned for the county's northwest, DeJong found. Besides enrolling new pupils from those homes, the school system, under state law, must find space for all-day kindergarten classes by the 2007-2008 school year.
New Town was the last public elementary school built in the county, at a cost of $12.8 million.
State Del. Robert A. Zirkin, a Democrat from Owings Mills who has been pushing for a new middle school there, said he would lobby in Annapolis for state funding for two new elementary schools.
"Maybe this will give the needed impetus for the next county administration to do the right thing, which is build some new schools," he said.