Hampton Elementary Grapples with Overcrowding

Numbers, not words, say everything about overcrowding at Hampton Elementary School.

School capacity: 307. 

Total enrollment: 451. 

By the first day of school on Aug. 30, the final figure is likely to be closer to 500.

"We will be at 160 percent over capacity by opening day," said Yara Cheikh, vice president of legislation and parent education for the Hampton Elementary PTA. "We are the most overcrowded elementary school in the county."

Cheikh said parents are still thrilled with Hampton's teachers and administrators. It's their confines – including eight trailers – that have them worried.

"We're not complaining about anything happening inside of our school walls," Cheikh said. "We just need more school walls. We need funding now."

Many parents expected to see the start of construction on a promised 300-seat addition this summer, especially with the new $22 million West Towson Elementary School opening this week. The school was built with $7 million in state funds and $15 million in county money. Its rapid, 14-month construction was fueled by overcrowding at Rodgers Forge Elementary School.

But the West Towson school was just the first step in a three-part plan to alleviate space issues at schools throughout the York Road corridor from Towson to Timonium.

Additions at Hampton and then at Stoneleigh Elementary were to be the next two steps in that process. Yet instead of breaking ground for new construction this month, Hampton Elementary received three new trailers, according to Towson Families United's Web site at www.towsonfamiliesunited.com.

Parents fear the urgency that spurred officials into action on West Towson may be waning.

Charles Herndon, a school system spokesman, said the earliest construction could start would be next spring. And school budget documents show that the completed addition has been factored into projections for the 2012 school year. 

"Hampton is a priority with us," Herndon said. "As with all of our capital projects it depends on the funding."

It certainly appeared to be a top priority to County Executive James T. Smith Jr. nearly five months ago. In his April 15 budget letter, Smith wrote to the County Council that "$12.8 million in county funds has been provided for a 330-seat addition and renovation of Hampton Elementary School."

A month later the County Council approved the fiscal year 2011 county budget with $2.5 million allocated "toward an addition to Hampton Elementary School," according to the document.  The council budget document goes on to say that another $8 million would be set aside in the fiscal year 2012 spending plan that begins June 1 next year.

But the county is still waiting for the state to kick in $6.3 million, according to school system documents. The state has not awarded the county that money.

"Towson Families United has been investigating for several weeks why Hampton was not funded, but does not yet have definitive information," states the Towson Families United blog posted last week.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe A. Hairston said the school system is waiting for a revenue stream from the state to fully finance the Hampton construction, but that plans for its addition remain a priority.   

County Executive Smith said on Thursday at the opening of the West Towson Elementary School that the recession has slowed spending across the state.

"I had to rearrange the whole capital plan because of the recession," Smith said.   

Cheikh said parents are launching a letter writing campaign to elected officials to keep the issue alive and will begin inviting state and local politicians to the school to experience the overcrowding.

"The entire fourth grade are in trailers, or, as they like to call them, 'learning cottages,'" Cheikh said. "Fifth grade is completely outside the building in trailers."

Only students in kindergarten through third grade occupy the main building. The fourth and fifth grade students must travel to get to the gym, the cafeteria and the bathroom.

"Once a child hits third grade they're no longer in a class with a bathroom," Cheikh said.