Bellows Spring is at 118 percent, while Elkridge is at 124 percent. Forest Ridge Elementary, farther south along the same corridor, is at 113 percent, and Patuxent Valley Middle is at 112 percent.
Plans call for a 150-seat addition to Elkridge Elementary to be built next summer, and the board is asking for money for a 100-seat addition for Bellows Spring the following year. Redistricting is expected for the school year starting August 2010, but that will focus mainly on high schools, officials said.
This year, Howard High, which also serves the U.S. 1 corridor, and Reservoir High are more than 113 percent of capacity, though the county's Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance does not apply to high schools. Overall enrollment is 48,820 students.
The county is offering developers in the corridor quicker county approvals if they donate land for public facilities such as schools, libraries or fire stations. School officials are studying the possibility of building a less traditional suburban school on a smaller plot of land.
"If we have to fit a building into a small site, we want to make sure it's a concept Howard County wants," Gallihue said.
Schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin said the building must work in terms of size and price, and it must work for teachers and others who use the building.
In addition to crowding, school officials are also dealing with pending state budget cuts that would cost the Howard system $1.46 million.
Ray Brown, chief financial officer, said he and others are working on options for absorbing that reduction in the current academic year. He said the schools are using energy-saving programs for things such as school lighting, plowing the money saved on electricity and maintenance into more projects. In addition, Cousin said, the schools and county government are pooling resources to cut other costs - including combining grounds maintenance efforts with the Department of Recreation and Parks, where school grounds border county parks and heating-and-cooling maintenance, which are the same for schools and other county buildings.
"There's a big list of possible economies and efficiencies we can achieve if we give up turf," Cousin said.
The bigger worry, Brown said, is if the state shifts teacher pension costs to the county. That would add a $45 million burden next year.
Cousin said the state could begin shifting that cost gradually, however, by having local governments pay for the annual increase in pensions, which would be about $3.5 million for Howard County.
But over time, that financial burden grows. Social Security costs for teachers were shifted from state to county governments in 1992, Cousin said, when the annual cost was $7 million. Now that item costs $20 million.
"We can live with one year," he said. "It's much more difficult in the future."
