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Rock Creek Forest Elementary School in Chevy Chase is so cramped that children eat lunch on the same space they use to stage plays and choral productions.

With about 500 students crammed into a space designed for 350, there's little room on the black top at recess. And at pickup and drop-off times, traffic around the school nears gridlock. The special education teacher's office used to be a storage closet — a sign that reads "storage" still hangs above the door.

"Every single inch of that school is used," said PTA co-president Amanda Waugh. "We don't have closets anymore — every space is used for office or instruction space."

Rock Creek Forest is among many schools in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster plagued by overcrowding, and enrollment projections are rising, according to Montgomery County Public Schools. Five of the cluster's seven elementary schools are significantly overcrowded, cluster coordinator Craig Brown told the Montgomery County Council last year.

With high birth rates contributing to cramped schools, elementary schools are especially affected, but the problem is expected to trickle up to middle schools.

Rock Creek Forest also has a Spanish immersion magnet program that draws students from across the county, contributing to the crowding problem there, Waugh said. Many elementary schools, like Rock Creek Forest, use portables to accommodate extra students. But the core space is bursting at the seams.

"It was just never meant to have that many people," Waugh said.

Tackling the problem

Efforts are underway to relieve overcrowding at several elementary schools.

If the six-year Capital Improvements Program budget is approved by the Montgomery County Council, Rock Creek Forest will be on track to receive a $24.5 million modernization that will bump its capacity to 639 by January 2015. Superintendent Jerry D. Weast recently recommended boundary changes that would send more than 100 students from Bethesda Elementary School to Bradley Hills Elementary School in August 2013, once a classroom addition is completed at Bradley Hills.

And despite the dire economic climate, Weast also recommended additions at Westbrook and Somerset Elementary Schools — at $11.8 million and $1.5 million, respectively, said Bruce Crispell, director of long-range planning for the school system.

The recommended building projects lifted the cluster out of a county-imposed moratorium on new residential developments in mid-January, imposed when school enrollment projections reach above a 120 percent threshold.

The building moratorium went into effect in July when a test determined that elementary schools in the cluster would be over 120 percent enrolled by the 2014-2015 school year.

Elementary schools were already at 124 percent of capacity in the 2008-2009 school year, and projected to be at 137 percent by 2014-2015, according to Pam Dunn, a researcher with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Department.

Weast also recommended feasibility reviews for expanding Rosemary Hills, Bethesda Elementary, Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase elementary schools. Recommendations for expanding one or more of those schools could be ready by the fall, Crispell said.

Brown has long advocated for money to relieve overcrowding in the cluster.

"It's positive to see the focus and commitment from the county — I can't overemphasize that we're grateful for this," Brown said of the recommended funding for Westbrook and Somerset. He will push for projects such as the Rock Creek Forest modernization to remain on track and be fully funded, especially after the building moratorium was lifted.

"It's a desperate need. We are simply out of space," he said.

Enrollment pressure won't ease

High birth rates in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster and Montgomery County as a whole have been the biggest contributor to rising enrollments, Crispell said.

High-rise apartments in Bethesda's Central Business District have contributed more new students than usual to the school district in the last few years, and the decision by some parents to remove their children from non-public schools and have them attend MCPS schools has also had a noticeable statistical impact.

More young families are moving in when older residents leave, he said.

"We don't see the pressure easing at all," Crispell said.

But new residential development has had a minimal impact on enrollment, Crispell said, and the poor housing market has dampened developer ambitions. A re-energized housing market will add to the district's worries, he said.

In 2006-2007, Bethesda Elementary School's kindergarten enrollment stood at 46, but jumped to 70 in 2007-2008 and then to 83 in 2008-2009. Over the same period, the school's total enrollment jumped nearly 22 percent, from 416 students to 505 in 2008.

Enrollment figures at elementary schools are expected to remain high, according to statistics provided by Crispell. For the 2012-2013 year, Bethesda Elementary is projected to have 513 students, compared to 497 this year. School capacity is 367 students.

Projections for the 2012-2013 academic year at North Chevy Chase show 395 students, the same number enrolled this school year. The school's capacity is 230 students, though it is scheduled to receive a new gym, Crispell said.

Westland Middle School, which has a capacity of 1,037 students, is projected to feel more pressure in coming years, according to Crispell. Enrollment this school year is 987 students, but that is projected to jump to 1,054 in the 2012-2013 and 1,194 by 2015-2016.

‘If we build it, they will come'

When Jack Hayes moved into his East Bethesda neighborhood fifteen years ago, he said he would see a handful of children in the neighborhood playground. These days, Hayes, also a Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster coordinator with Brown, sees nearly 50, he said.

He attributes the overcrowding to natural turnover in downcounty neighborhoods.

"I think a lot of the area inside the Beltway is rejuvenating itself with families, and I think lots of people want to be close to the Metro line," Hayes said.

Hayes sees efforts to combat overcrowding as making impacts.

Bethesda's Westbrook Elementary School, for example, was recently recommended to receive funds for a classroom addition and a new gym — currently, students take physical education in the all-purpose room, which is also used for lunch, according to Principal John Ewald.

The school is nearly 100 students over capacity — it has five portables, and will likely have at least one more next year, Ewald said. The 15-classroom addition will more than double the school's capacity from about 290 to about 640 in August 2013.

Ewald said the issue of school growth is likely to be ongoing even after the addition opens, but he is confident MCPS would provide resources to face increasing enrollment.

"If we build it, they will come, and when that happens we will have to build more, and then they will come again," he said.